Lessons in Street Magic
by BlackJoker013
Summary: A butterfly flaps it's wings, For what of a Nail what ever you want to call it something changes. The night the team fought Amazo Artemis wasn't there aiding from the shadows she was busy helping a young mystic in the never ending battle of saving the world from magical side of things big time magic heroes just don't have time for./Story starts around the end of Schooled
1. Again with a Boy Falling From the Sky

**August 3, 21:24 EDT**

Form a high vantage point on top of one of the city's skyline railways a young woman perched herself on the track looking over the cursed urban jungle.

Wearing a dark forest green combat suit that left her arms, midriff, and lower face bare the girl calmly inhaled the warm summer air as she continued to patrol the city from her perch, with a quill filled with arrows on her back and bow firmly clutched in her hand, as her mind couldn't help but replay the conversation her parents had the other night that she managed to ease drop on.

" _Baby, you're kiddin' yourself if you think you can save Artemis from this life…..she's one of us."_

Those were the words Artemis' father had said stating like it was a fact that the girl would end up a criminal like he is, and her mother was.

But all those words had managed to do was get Artemis out here in the city, using all the skills and training that "Crusher"had poured into her to stop the criminal element instead of becoming a part of it.

"Whatever happens now it's because of my own choices.." the young archer said to herself. "I'm the one who gets to choose what bus I…."

 **SWOSH!**

A bright ball of light had stopped her from her internal narration when Artemis saw a giant ball of light wiz right past her and bounce around a few buildings right as the glowing sphere crashed into an alleyway.

Pumped full of curiosity and adrenaline the archer steadied out her bow and fired a grappling arrow into the air as she reeled in the cable attached to the projectile so she could swing and gently land across the sky and into the nearby crash sight.

Just as Artemis landed she saw that the glowing ball had started to turn to glowing ash, as the particles started to break and flicker out of existence. With a sharp arrow pulled out and ready for use Artemis slowly started to approach the dying sphere only to see that a person had been inside it, a boy person.

A kid maybe around her age was lying on the ground his face covered in scratches and one deep cut that bleed under his right eye. With spiky blond hair that seemed like it was cut by a barber with shaky hands the boy was wearing a mostly resent dirty black suit with an orange button up shirt that wasn't tucked into his pants. He also had on a dark blue tie that hung under his collar as if he had never the attention to tie it.

Artemis had put her arrow back into her quiver as she set her bow down onto the ground and knelled next to the boy, gently lifting the fellow blonde's head and softly tried to get him to come to.

"Yeah are you all right?" she asked debating on if she should flag down some help or try and carry the boy to the nearest clinic or hospital herself.

"Yeah I think I'm ok.." the boy slowly said as he rubbed his head and began to open his eyes. But the second his vibrant blue eyes meet Artemis' stone cold greys his cheeks turn a light shade of pink as he threw his head back down and over to the side.

"OhhhhhI….I'm not sure actually…" the boy slowly coughed out as he opened one eye. "I might get better if you give me some mouth to mouth…" just as he said that he quickly forced his eyes shut and stuck his tongue out to the side as if he had just crocked.

Artemis' worry turned flat as she quickly removed her hands and let the strange boy's noggin fall back down. "Nice try there, Casanova."

The boy didn't seem discouraged as he pressed his hands to the ground for better leverage and sprang back to his feet. "It was worth a shot." The spiky blond mumbled as he dusted off his suit jacket the best he could.

Getting back up as well the archer didn't drop her caution as she walked around the boy gauging if the fall had caused the kid any more damage than the scratches on his face. "So what was that, the glowing ball thing are you a metahuman?"

The boy bent over and straightened out his pants as he answered back. "No that was just a barrier spell and it should have kept me rooted from where I was before but I didn't have a chance to ground myself before that monster punched me like a semi-truck."

"Monster? What monster?" Artemis asked as she pulled out another arrow and looked up scanning the roof tops.

The boy immediately shot his head towards the end of the alleyway that led towards the street and began to unbutton his shirt from the bottom as he pulled back the garment exposing his surprisingly well toned tummy. "Damn it he's already here!"

The boy started to run towards the street as Artemis ran along beside him. "Wait stop for a second you're not making any sense and what are you doing with your shirt?"

The boy swiped some of the blood rolling of his cheek and smeared it across his stomach causing a giant spiral like tattoo starting from his belly button to appear on his flesh. "I'm opening a portal!" he explained just as a giant dark object feel from sky and crashed onto the street rocking the earth like a quake, and setting off a few car alarms as well.

"Eat this you stupid jerk!" the spiky blond shouted as a giant brown arm with light blue sigils running along itself, emerged from the boy's gut and formed a fist as it struck the unknown monster before Artemis could see it emerge from the dust created from the rubble.

But it wasn't enough as the boy's attack back fried and he ended up skidding backwards from the inefficient punch as the giant arm receded back into his stomach like a scared turtle.

Collapsing a knee to the ground as if he had just been the one who had been hit, the boy let out a small gasp and used his hand to signal Artemis to come over towards him.

Artemis ran over towards him and readied her own weapon but all the excitement didn't stop her from asking questions. "Alright I want to know who you are, how you just did what you just did, and what it is we're fighting!"

Swiping some more blood that still gushing slowly off his cheek the boy answered. "Well I'm Naruto, and what I just did was open a portal from another dimension were I can summon the body parts of whole bunch of different creatures to help me out in a fight or whatever, and lastly if you're a native born Gothamite then the second Evil Dead over there says something you'll know who he is!"

Naruto strange name but whatever Artemis was about to say was caught in her throat as she heard the mysterious creature from the cover of night bellow out.

"Born, on a Monday!"


	2. If You're Born on a Monday

**Gotham City years ago**

"Solomon Grundy!"

Just the sound of that name made a young Artemis wrap the blanket over her head even tighter as the frightened girl squished her teddy bear closer to her chest as she continued to listen to her sister's story.

Across the room they shared once a time ago, Artemis' sister the older of the two had a flashlight lit under her chin as the only source of light in the room to add a sweeter layer of sinister to her freighting tale.

"Some say that the immortal zombie was once a man, a kind a rich merchant named Cyrus Gold who was murdered for his wealth …" she flexed her fingers adding on the spook factor as she talked.

Artemis couldn't stop shivering as her sister continued.

"Others say that he was a mob enforcer and that his name, Gold was actually an epithet he got for his hunger for the shiny metal that eventually led his boss killing him for his insatiable greed."

Artemis' sister raised the flashlight even closer as she jumped on her bed and increased the mellow drama. "And there are some who say that Grundy is the living embodiment of all the darkness and evil that resides in Gotham City!"

Eep! Artemis went full on under the covers only to get the big sis to shine the light right in her face as she pulled the blanket back. "But whatever the truth to the monsters origins one thing is for sure he's unstoppable. The Justice Society, Superman, even Batman have all fought him to the death! But no matter what they do Grundy always comes back always!"

Artemis swallowed "Wow even Superman…but….but what do I do if I ever run into him?"

Big sis let out another sinister laugh as she walked back over to her bed. "Why you think you'll be running into the zombie when you become a criminal like mom or dad?"

Artemis held down her head as she looked extremely indecisive and scared. "Well…..I don't know?"

Letting out another cool snicker Artemis' sister spun the flashlight in her hand as she said. "Relax squirt you don't have to worry about big bad Grundy alright but if you do there is one way to beat him all you have to do is…."

BANG BANG BANG!

The loud pounding of their bedroom door caused Artemis' to fall right out of bed and hide under it as a rough and growling voice barked out. "I told you little ladies to go to sleep! We're moving out in five hours!"

From her hiding spot Artemis saw her sister look back at the door in disgust as she turned off her flash light and pulled her own covers up to get to bed but not before spooking Artemis one last time.

We'll good night kid, and oh just so you know dad's taking us out to Slaughter Swamp in a few hours you know the place Solomon Grundy's body was supposedly dumped and were he comes out of every time he's reborn!...well goodnight!"

Good night in deed the young Archer didn't sleep at all that night as she rocked back and forth with her legs tucked up to her chest.

 **NOW**

"Christened on Tuesday!" the giant grey fist of Solomon Grundy tried to punch Artemis only to be stopped by the invisible barrier she and the strange new mystic she met, Naruto were on the other side of.

Having the shock of looking upon one of the oldest legends of Gotham City just a few feet away from her the archer was finally able to tear her eyes away from the nine foot undead villain who had the same fashion sense as the spiky haired sorcerer beside her as the grey skinned white haired monster had his own slightly more ragged three piece on.

"So this is Solomon Grundy, Solomon Grundy is real, he's real and he's going to eat us." Artemis laughed nervously as she did a quick weapons check. "Well in all the ways I thought I'd die in this city being eaten to death wasn't exactly on the top ten!"

Naruto didn't look scared or even worried as he opened up a ninja like scroll and stared intensely at it reading it quickly as he moved his eyes up and down the parchment. "That's actually a myth thought up by Hollywood writers. Zombies raised by magic like Grundy don't eat people."

"R..really?" Artemis asked.

"Yeah he's actually going to rip us apart from the waist so he can use our intestines as a head band and belt while he dances ceremonially on our remains."

"Oh is that all, well that makes me feel so much better!" the archer shouted sarcastically.

Another stray haymaker from zombie actually managed to do some damage as Artemis reeled her head back over to the big guy and saw what looked like cracks in reality as by the looks of it the barrier wasn't going to hold out much longer.

"Yeah that barrier isn't going to hold out much longer." Naruto stated as he swiped some more of his red juice and ran his blood covered finger over the parchment, and then hitting some hidden trigger as the paper receded back into the scroll.

"But I have a way that'll beat him you'll just have to find a way to distract tall, grey, and ugly for at least another five minutes."

"Do we even have another five minutes?" Artemis asked angrily as she nodded to the collapsing barrier.

"Well ordinarily yes we would. But Grundy isn't just smashing the shield he's draining it see." The boy dressed in black pointed down towards the symbols that he had conjured up when he ran his blood over his fingers, and did some sort of magical sign language that created the dome barrier in the first place.

But the symbols themselves were now starting to fade away. "That's why you'll have to do something he'll just drain anything I'll throw at him!"

"But you're charging for a spell right now aren't you won't he just drain that?!"

"That's what I'm counting on!" Naruto shouted as he looked Grundy in his literal soulless eyes smirking at the dumb giant. "Don't worry I heard all about you!"

"You have?"

"Well yeah I heard you do this sort of thing all the time, Green Arrow!"

"…..I'm not Green Arrow I don't have a Guy Fawkes beard…and I'm a woman!"

"Maybe not but you are that girl archer that's been going around and stopping drug dealers and armed robbers for the past few nights in this neighborhood, right?"

Artemis looked Naruto in the eyes seeing that his resolve in her didn't seem to weaver. "Well now it's time to step up Arrow Girl against your first archenemies!" he shouted pointing the scroll at said enemy while keeping his eyes on Artemis.

"Married on Wednesday!" Grundy shouted as he began to double fist the shield.

"Oh shut up! For the last hour I had to listen to you repeat that stupid poem. I liked it better when you talked like the Incredible Hulk made me feel like I was fighting Bill Bixby."

Artemis ignored Naruto's one sided conversation with Solomon as she pulled out two of her arrows that were fitted with black cylinders instead of arrow heads. "Naruto…" she said getting the magical boy's attention.

"…this shield's still air tight right, even with those cracks?" something told her that the properties of this defense weren't tied to this reality.

"Yup pretty much."

"Then all I can say is, hold your breath." Artemis kneeled down and twirled the two arrows in her hands before she aimed them right above the ground. "And by the way my name's Artemis."

With that the archer slammed the arrows in the ground blanketing the inside of the bubble with thick black smoke. Just as the smog reached Naruto's face he smiled and whispered "I know your Jade's sister."


	3. You'll Get Knocked the F-out on a Friday

One Punch!

That's all it took for Solomon Grundy to finally destroy Naruto's barrier. And like an unwanted pimple on prom night the shield popped, spreading out the black mist from Artemis' smoke arrows that the vigilante detonated beforehand.

Grundy just let out a growl as he used his giant arms to shield himself from the smoke not noticing a grappling hook being shot into the air and connect to a nearby roof top followed by a straining Artemis as she reeled herself after the grapple, holding onto Naruto's arm the best she could as the archer dragged them both upward.

Due to the added weight the landing wasn't so graceful, as Artemis landed with a stumble and a roll while Naruto landed on his face while his butt was raised in the air.

"You couldn't have done that a bit better?" Naruto muffled out as he lifted his face off and spat some gravel out.

Putting her crossbow away in her thigh holster Artemis replied. "Well I didn't see you doing anything. Couldn't you I don't know pull a giant rabbit out of your hat that could have hopped us away?"

Getting back on his feet Naruto wrinkled his jacket and waved his scroll from before in Artemis face like a disappointed finger. "I'm trying to save my magic in order to take out Grundy, do you know how much pure dark magic it takes to actually pull a rabbit out of a hat!?"

All sarcasm aside Artemis actually raised a curious brow. "Are you serious? That whole rabbit thing is like the hardest trick a sorcerer can do?"

"Well yeah!" Naruto began to roll up his sleeves reveling that like his stomach he had a series of ruins, symbols, and mystic equations tattooed on both of his arms. "There's a reason those guys out in Las Vegas have to use magnets and wires on their other tricks, cause they'll run out of power after they do the make Bugs take a wrong turn in Albuquerque routine."

That actually made Artemis chuckle as she let out the word "Cute" but she cautioned herself on rather or not to look back down and see if Grundy had known were they were yet. "So how do you plan to stop him?"

"Simple the second he comes up here you hit him with everything you got…..and if you manage to stay alive for at least three minutes we'll both win this!"

Naruto then placed the scroll in his mouth and back spaced away from Artemis and the ledge they both came from as he started to shift his hands in a series of different signs.

"….Are you kidding me?!" Artemis shouted angrily as she tried to read Naruto's facial expressions since his mouth was currently full.

But in one moment her anger turned to fear as the shift of wind and a loud crushing thump behind her, along with every battle instinct she had screaming at the archer that something dangerous was right behind her.

A moist mist breathing down her neck was all the physical warning Artemis got as she pulled out an arrow from her quiver and rolled forward lifting her bow out as she turn around shooting the projectile right into Solomon Grundy's face.

The unliving legend of Gotham was greeted with a blast of constricting foam that engulfed his entire mouth. Trying desperately to clear his unneeded air pipe out of some deep down reflex, Grundy ended up getting his right fist caught in the foam as well.

Having been taught to never giving an opponent a seconds rest Artemis launched another straight arrow, aimed right at the monsters knees.

It took three arrows fired in a row at the same spot in order for the arrow heads to dig deep enough in the zombies flesh to get a reaction from him.

Doubling over in pain Grundy began to back pedal close to the roofs edge waving his only free arm in a desperate attempt to stay balanced as he did.

But Artemis took the giant's misfortune to make a mistake; she took her eyes off her opponent.

"How much longer are you going to take?!" Artemis demanded as turned around to yell at Naruto.

The boy in question was only able to loudly mutter out some unpronounceable words as his mouth was still occupied with the scroll. "Loagk bhealdnd ouu!" Naruto screamed while his eyes darted back and forth.

"What?"

"Bheennd ouu!"

Artemis followed Naruto's eyes just in time to be lifted up in the air and dangle upside down right in fort of Grundy's face just as the monster ripped his right hand off his face clearing the hardened foam along with a good chunk of his flesh along with it.

With the face of damnation on Earth staring right back at her Artemis stayed calm as she tried to take back the situation in her control. "Yeah, yeah I know big guy this is the part where you say…" she said as slipped three mini stun flechettes from her wrist band.

"…Took ill on a Thursday!" Artemis roared as the flechettes flickered out of her hand and right into Grundy's eye, shocking him as well as piercing one of the few vulnerable parts of his body.

Dropping Artemis like a failing college course the archer flipped onto her feet and back flipped away from Grundy and stood right next to Naruto in a crouching stance.

"Please tell me you're ending this, Mr. Orange"

Naruto stopped throwing out his mystic hand signs and opened his mouth letting his scroll drop into his palm. "I am and just for the record I'm any of the Ramblers I'm Mr. White, Harvey Keitel all the way!"

Artemis couldn't help but let out a small laugh despite the impeding danger. "I guess that means we're going for tacos after this."

Naruto slammed the scroll onto the ground hard enough that his left cracks into the roof of the building, in which a series of words and symbols from the scroll started to leak out and burrowed into the foundation.

Grundy tried to shake his head in an effort to get the projectiles out of his eye only to stop once a cluster of golden glowing chains had burst from out of the ground and wrap themselves all over his arm, legs, torso, and neck.

"Was that it? Your plan to stop him was some magic chains that's he'll break free from?" Armies asked sarcastically having remembered Naruto mentioning Grundy was absorbing all of the other blond kid's magic.

"But It'll hold him long enough for this!" pulling his shirt up like before Artemis saw the same mystic symbol on Naruto's belly had appeared and with it a pair of brown horns started to come out of his stomach.

Unlike before with the giant arm Artemis was able to see that the horns were sort of phasing out of Naruto like a phantasm. The horns themselves revealed that they were attached to a head of brownish ox that had another set of horns upon it's scull making four all together. The bull it's self which shared its head size with that of an average sheep opened its mouth summoning shards of light towards the center of its open jaw.

In one second that shards formed a glowing sphere that shrank as the ox to closed its mouth and let out a snort.

The chains holding back Solomon were starting to break just as the young archer predicted but not soon enough.

"Hey Grundy!" Naruto shouted getting the half faced one eyed zombies attention. "I'm sorry!"

The ox reopened its mouth shooting out the ball of energy right at Solomon Grundy. The undead creature let out an arcane bellowing of pain as the remains of his jacket and shirt started to rip apart and expose more of his torso.

The ball of energy stood at an even collision just ramming against Grundy as the chains were actually the reason why he wasn't sent flying yet.

Naruto patted the Ox's head and thanked him for its assistance as it began to retreat back into Naruto's body. "Sorry that took so long but I was actually scaling the size of my friends head so his attack wouldn't be at its max. That's about one tenth right there." Naruto wagged his finger towards said ten present that was starting to get smaller.

"I still don't get it what was the point?" Artemis asked. "He's just absorbing your magic! If anything he's just screaming because he's taking in more than his body can….handle…" the young woman's words fell flat as she realized maybe that was Naruto's plan in the first place.

"It's not Grundy that's sucking up my magic, it's that!" Naruto pointed right at Grundy's upper chest. Artemis was able to make out a long scar across the undead man's right man boob pectoral were it seemed that the vapor coming out of the ball of energy that was grinding into Solomon's gut was being sucked into.

Reaching behind his back Naruto managed to pull out a silver arrow out of nowhere. He handed said arrow to Artemis who took it and examined the projectile more specifically the head which wasn't a normal one but what looked like a claw from one of those prize grabber games.

"Aim for that scar!" Naruto instructed. "The mystical item stitched in his body's the reason he's been able to drain me!"

Artemis pulled up the arrow and steadied it on her bow, aiming it with perfection as she closed one eye.

"What are you waiting for? Fire it already!"

"Not yet….."

"Seriously he's going to break free!"

"I've never fired an arrow like this before its length and weight are different from my usual cache so just SHUT UP!" Artemis screamed not really at Naruto but more as a battle cry as her fingers relaxed their hold on the noch and let the silver bolt fly free.

Grundy was hit in less than a second as the force behind the bolt actually managed to push his chest backwards a little. Even with the monster fighting off the energy ball which was at a fourth its original size, Grundy looked generally confused even more so then usual as he looked back at Artemis.

"Ok now what?" Artemis asked as the arrow had only dug it's grabber head into Solomon's flesh.

"Check out your hand." Naruto said as he used his brows to indicate towards the archer's firing one.

Looking down Artemis saw that a glowing silver like thread had wrapped it's self around her wrist tangled in her palm, with the other end connected all the way to the silver arrow.

"Pull it."

Artemis didn't fight Naruto on this she knew that she lacked the superhuman level strength necessary to pull the tethered arrow out of Grundy at this distance, and by the looks of it the depth it was submerged in, but then did all that rationality actually matter after all _"magic"._

One quick tug was all it took to pull the arrow out, and along with it a golden shimmering object secured tightly by the arrows claw tip.

And that was it Grundy stopped screaming, his cold dead eyes became nonexistent as they faded away allowing the flechettes to fall towards the ground, the chains that held him finally broke completely and the Naruto's energy which was the size of a golf ball managed to push a non-resisting Grundy off the roof pummeling him down the side of the building.

Naruto and Artemis exchanged glances as they looked forward and ran towards edge, looking down just in time to see the shriveling body of Solomon Grundy land right on the pavement exploding like a meat balloon.

"Daaaaamn!" the two teenagers hissed out in disgust as they threw their heads back diagonally after seeing grey meat and black blood painted the vacant street.

"I'd hate to be the one who cleans that up." Artemis muttered as she shook her head.

"Yeah but I know a guy who's sort of an expert on this sort of thing but first thing's first put the Spleen of Osiris in this box."

Artemis turned her head towards Naruto looking he had just grown a second one. "I'm sorry the what of who?"

Naruto had again pulled another item from out of nowhere, this time a wooden chest with symbols engraved all over the container that he held open in his hands. "The shiny thing you pulled out of Grundy."

Holding the arrow up Artemis pried the golden bean shaped object up, seeing that it was about the size of a grapefruit.

Holding out to Naruto caused the boy to take a few steps back and hold out the box as if it were a trash can and the Spleen of Osiris was a carton of old milk. "That thing's sucked enough of my magic for one night just put it in the box."

"So this was what was keeping Grundy alive." She said placing the object in the chest and closing the lid for Naruto. "Or I guess somewhat alive."

"This time it was. Grundy's usually powered by another primal force it's called the Rot or the Grey I forget which. Anyway the Spleen of Osiris has the power to raise a dead body as its host while it makes said puppet walk the Earth draining people of their magic." Naruto explained while he held the box under his arm.

"Ok but then who would put it in Solomon Grundy and for what purpose?" Artemis asked as she looked back down at the broken corpse.

"I don't know" Naruto said sincerely. "It could be anyone an evil magic guy, evil mad scientist nerd, or it could have been the Joker."

"The Joker?!"

"He's an unpredictable jerk he probably thought it be funny."

"I guess I can't argue with that logic, Huh the Joker and logic in the same conversation doesn't real sound right." Artemis stated evenly. "This really has been a weird night."

"Well it's about to get weirded I mentioned before that I know someone who can get Grundy's messy remains out of here I got to go see him now before someone tries to sell a piece of Grundy over the internet…again."

Naruto then began to walk over towards the building's fire escape going down a less dangerous route but was stopped when Artemis didn't feel like letting tonight end like this. "So who are you off to see then?"

With is head being the only visible part of his body as he already began climbing the spiky haired magician shrugged and said in a matter of fact way. "I'm gonna see Oz."

Artemis stood still for a moment twirling the sliver arrow still in her hand wondering if Naruto didn't ask for it back because he wanted her to follow him, or if he just forgot about it.

This was the moment, the one she was waiting for. All her life she'd been shoved into the proverbial bus that other wanted her to take never once choosing her own destination. So it came down to this did would she toss the silver arrow off the roof, hope Naruto would catch it, and then go home waiting until tomorrow night so she could stalk the streets of Gotham again in order to stop a few more street level thugs.

Or would she take the arrow and follow Naruto into the night seeing where the bus in his life would lead to.

No one was shoving her this time so she made her choice.

So Artemis put the silver arrow in her quiver and followed Naruto down the rabbit hole he was digging."Wait up!" Artemis yelled as she started going down the fire escape asking out loud as she climbed down. "So, who's Oz?"


	4. Talkative Talking on Taco Tuesday

**August 7, 22:45 EDT Gotham City**

Oswald Chesterfield Cobblepot was known throughout Gotham as the man who could get you anything. Knowledge broker, arms dealer, and avid piano player Oswald or Oz as he was known to his more trusted clients/associates was truly one of the best middle men out there.

So it came to quite a bit of a surprise to Artemis when she followed Naruto down to the docks as he casually walked up to one of the many warehouses in the water front, just gave one of the men guarding the front entrance a nod and opened the door for her not at all being smug or insincere throughout the whole process.

And here they were now sitting in the office of one of Cobblepot's many properties right across from an old yet elegant wooden desk to the man himself.

Cobblepot wasn't at all how Artemis pictured him in her head when she heard the man's name or epithet form her father in passing.

Oswald was a fairly young man maybe in his late twenty's to early thirties dressed in a tuxedo with a dark purple cross bow tie in quality that matched his antique desk in value just like the other curios that decorated the office. The archer couldn't help but wonder that when it came down to it all rich people were the same, they just loved showing off what they could buy with their money.

"Naruto my dear friend…" Cobblepot said with a wide smile as he drummed his fingers on the top of his bowler hat that sat on his side of the desk. "…While it's always a pleasure to see you I can't help but wonder if given the current time or that fact you didn't call ahead your visit today is a business matter or at the very least an urgent one seeing as how you disregarded my policies and brought a friend along with you."

Cobblepot's eyes snapped immediately towards Artemis with the man's face not dropping his smile but also caused him to drum his hat a little faster telling the girl that her presence made the black market trader jittery at best.

"Sorry about that I lost my cellphone…again and don't worry about Artemis, Oz." Naruto reassured the older man as he scooted his seat a bit closer. "I can vouch for her; you can trust me on it."

Cobblepot stopped drumming immediately as he raised his hands letting out a small laugh. "Of course forgive me and my suspicions, Naruto. A friend of yours is a friend of mine and so forth. So tell me then what can I do for you today? A military grade encrypted phone to replace your old one perhaps."

"That's probably not a good idea at the rate I lose them I'm better off just buying disposable phones form the corner markets."

Naruto and Oswald started laughing at the former's small joke leaving the archer the odd woman out.

"But seriously Oz you know that small favor you owe me for that…" Naruto looked over towards Artemis as he held up his hand to hide the side of his face as he said in a low whisper "…that thing I took care for you at that place at that one time."

Artemis rolled her eyes as she folded her arms letting out a mild huff as she heard what Naruto had said.

"Yes, yes I remember with the guy with the thing." Oswald said as he nodded his head. "Well my little friend just ask away your request and I'll do anything in my power to grant it to you within reason of course."

Naruto let out an irritated smile as he held his tongue on that _little friend_ comment. "Well you know Solomon Grundy?"

Oswald's smile dipped a little as he said. "Big, grey fellow, penchant for random destitution and bouts of anger every time he comes to see me for weapons…. **What you no have tommy gun?! Grundy want Chicago Typewriter in violin case in Grundy's hand size now no seven day waiting period or money down and if Grundy hear anything about twenty percent interest rate Grundy smash**!" Oswald then slammed his fists on his desk as he stopped his Grundy rant/ impersonation.

Looking back up at the two teenagers in his office he saw the amused look on Artemis and the disappointed head shacking of Naruto. Readjusting his neck tie and taking a deep breath Oswald began again. "…Yes I know of and have had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Grundy is this favor regarding that monster?"

"Well I guess I should say we kind of Humpty Dumptyed him." Naruto said as he used finger to indicate Artemis and himself.

"You…you turned him into The Hobby Robber?" Oswald asked.

"What no we pushed him off a ledge and he exploded on the street like a balloon filled with rotting meat."

Oswald made a grossed out face as he leaned back on his chair "Oh…..well that's disgusting." Placing his hand over his mouth he adjusted it under his chin and continued. "I've never known you to be a liar Naruto. But you'll have to excuse my shock that two teenagers such as yourselves were able to take out such a heavy hitter like that."

"Well you can go downtown in Park Row where the whole street's painted in zombie remains." Artemis spoke up.

"Actually he can't." Naruto said. "Before we came here I threw up a glamor charm to keep any civilians from freaking out, or trying to sell pieces of Grundy off the internet."

"Glamor charm? What kind, what do people see when they look at this glamor, Naruto?" Oswald asked.

 **Gotham City/PARK ROW aka CRIME ALLY**

Even for a quiet street one or two cars would drive through it at least once every ten minutes. But now the whole street was backed up as delivery trucks, commuters, and even the random teens out for a loitering drive were all held up by the giant crevice was cut onto the whole street stopping the motorists from either side from crossing it.

The only explanation anybody was given was two picketed sign planted on both sides of the gaping hole that read: _**Warning Cataclysm Ahead**_

* * *

Back to Oswald's office the knowledge broker let out a smirk as Naruto detailed his distraction spell. "So you're telling me that instead of a dead body on the street which let's face it in a city like ours that happens every other week. There's now a giant hole that's not only going to draw the attention of every law enforcement agency in the area but also the new stations, recue works, and maybe an environmentalist group or two."

Naruto didn't look embarrassment as he flashed his own toothy grin. "It's like you said Mr. Cobblepot this is Gotham do you know how long it would take the police or anyone else to go a mile in that part of town after any one would call them?" Artemis replied beating Naruto to the punch and keeping up a formality as they still needed that favor.

"Yes well if Mr. Grundy is indeed dead..again and you've hidden him in some way. What is it you need from me exactly?"

"Extraction, we need you to gather all the king's horses and all king's men to pick up all of Grundy's pieces and then toss them in Slaughter Swamp." Artemis sang along in mockery.

"Well not to sound so unenthusiastic about this request but why couldn't the two of you taken the pieces yourself?"

"Because neither Mother Goose over here or me wants to touch super dead guy parts, it's gross." Naruto replied. "But I remembered that you still owe me one so I figure you can stick any one of your goons who have been slacking off on monster detail."

Oswald thought for a second before swirling his chair to his left, holding onto the sides of the chair for support as he took in a small breath and let it out. "Very well never let it be said I was never a man of my word….. **BUTCH!"**

With his loud scream traveling throughout the whole warehouse the sound of stumping feet reached the side door of Oswald's office. Right then the door swung open and a stoutly older man with slicked back brown hair wearing another stylish suit barged into the room. "You called, Boss?" the man asked as he took a small breath, took out a handkerchief, and used it to dab his forehead.

"Yes I did Butch be a dear and round up Sheldrake, Eagleton, and Jay and tell them that I need them to clean up a little mess in Park Row."

"Sure thing." The man named Butch said as he nodded his head. "Afterword's do you want them got to the furnace or dump the garbage in a specific spot."

"Ok that's enough vague old school mob talk, we need your guys to take the body and dump it in a swamp." Artemis said firmly.

Butch looked over towards the two children as he smiled at the spiky haired one. "Oh hey Naruto, good to see you again buddy." Butch's eyes then darted over towards Artemis. "Who's this, your girlfriend?"

Naruto just rolled his eyes . "Artemis Butch, Butch Artemis look about the body it's Solomon Grundy."

"Grundy? I guess I should get the boys to dump him in is resting spot out in Slaughter Swamp." Butch said not even questioning it.

"Wait you know that Grundy's legend isn't just a story too?" Artemis asked wondering if she was the only one in the room who thought the monster man was just a fable a few hours ago.

"I know everything there is to know about Gotham, Girley." Butch said narrowing his eyes slightly. "Every infrastructural, every piece of history, and every legend even the ones people think are just stories."

Butch's bragging about being a Gotham otaku was over taken by the sound of a nearby crash and sounds of screaming.

"What was that?" Naruto asked as he got off his chair as did Artemis.

Butch let out a nervous laugh as he started sweating a little more "That? Oh it's nothing the Boss' pet vulture escaped from its cage when I was cleaning it. So that Solomon situation we'll take care of that so if that's it I think it's time for you two to go!"

"Butch there's no need to be rude to our guests." Oswald said firmly getting up himself as he buttoned his tux.

"Rude, who's being rude?" Butch asked rhetorically. "It's getting late and these two probably don't want to spend the rest of their date hanging out with old geezers like us!"

"We aren't dating." Artemis said as she placed a hand on her hip. "We just met each other like two hours ago."

"Then all the more reason for you two to go out. Get to know each other more here." Butch reached for his wallet and pulled out a few bills shoving them in Naruto's hands as he began pushing him and the archer out though the office's main door. "Go grab some dinner it's Tuesday some one's bound to have a taco night somewhere."

Even as he was being shoved Naruto said. "That's kind of funny we were just talking about getting tacos…"

"Then it's faith or something!" Butch yelled cutting of Naruto as he got him out the door first but before he could show Artemis out Oswald said his good byes as well.

"Always good to see you again Naruto and it was a pleasure meeting you as well Artemis give Lawrence my best will you."

Saying the Name Lawrence made Artemis hold onto the doorframe as she leaded her head back in and pushed Butch aside. "How...how do you know Crusher?" she demanded.

"Crusher? Yes given the type of character he is I can see calling him father might be a little too familiar thing to do, I happen to know a thing or two about cold and demanding father's myself." Oswald said not at all taken by Artemis' glare.

"But to answer your question up until a few years ago Lawrence used to buy all his equipment from me. Ordinances, weapons, even replacement body armor our relationship ended however when he started going towards his new employers for his gear. Needless to say we didn't end things on the best of terms when we saw each other last."

Taking a few steps closer towards Artemis Oswald placed his finger on the top of archer's mask and gave it a few taps. "But I am glad he put the last item he ordered towards good use."

"What last item?" Artemis asked as she swiped Oswald's boney finger away.

"Why your little green number of course!" Oswald stated in a marry tone. "Were do you think that suit or your arrows came from. All thought if memory serves this outfit was intended for your sister hence the green.

That left Artemis a little stunned, enough so that Butch managed to shove her out and close the door behind her.

Butch then power walked over towards one of the filing cabinets and began riffling through them. Oswald walked right beside him as he opened a cabinet as well. "Alright why did you want those two out of here so fast?" Oz asked calmly as he pulled out a file. "I could have used Naruto's request to leverage him into helping me with our little problem out in Gateway City!" he yelled the last part slamming the file onto his desk.

"A few cell towers are going to have to wait Boss we have a bigger problem right now." Butch said as he pulled out a six shooter pistol clicking back the hammer as he took aim at the office side door.

Oswald followed Butch's gaze and reached over towards his umbrella stand pulling one out, as he twisted the handle unsheathing a blade out of it. "What's going on Butch?" he asked as another crash and the sound of someone crying out in pain entered the room. "That's not Percival causing all that commotion is it?" he asked referring to his beloved pet vulture.

"No it's…" but before Butch could finish someone crashed through the side door lying on top of the wooden remains. Walking around his desk Oswald saw that it was a tall woman with short black hair with one of her side shaved wearing a dark chauffeur uniform who had been the crasher.

"Lark?!" Oswald said saying the woman's name out loud. With a twitch of the finger and a small mown told him that one of his top lieutenant was at least still breathing. But as he looked back at the door way to see what had attacked one of his own, a strong kick knocked him up into the air and onto his desk.

Having the wind kicked out of him made Oswald unable to command Butch to shoot the intruder put the feeling of his own umbrella blade pricking the bottom of his jaw made him hold completely still.

"So you must be the Penguin."

Looking down trying his best not to move his head Oswald saw that his assailant was a young woman with long black hair wearing a purple turtle neck with black tactical pants. She held his sword cane with one hand while holding a small crossbow with the other, aimed right at Butch.

"Drop the gun Big Guy." The mysterious woman demanded without taking her eyes of Oswald. "Or else I'm giving your Boss a new neck tie!"

"Butch…." Oswald wheezed out trying very hard not to move his mouth so down. "Do as the lady says and offer her a drink."

Butch hesitated but complied as he placed the revolver on top of the cabinet and walked over towards the self which held a variety of different spirits.

The woman in turn removed the blade allowing Oswald to breathe heavily as he got off the desk. "You know in the future if you wish to make a purchase from me a simple phone call would suffice." The well-dressed man said as he rubbed his neck. "But because of your little stunt tonight I'm afraid I'm going to have to charge you for all damages you made tonight to my property and my employees."

The woman readjusted the shaded goggles on her face as she still had her crossbow which she now aimed at Oswald. "And what makes you think I'm here to buy something from a scumbag like you?"

Oswald smiled as he was handed two drinks from Butch. "Well because if you were here to do something gruesome like kill me…." He paused just as Lark quietly and effectively got up and snuck behind the mysterious woman placing a blade of her own under the woman's throat.

"…. You would have done me in when you had me on my back." Oswald snickered as he downed on of the drinks and throw the empty glass across the room. "Did that sound sexual I didn't mean to make it sound sexual."

"I think you're in the clear Mr. C" Lark said as she was trying her best not to give in to her rage and cut her captive a new air hole.

"That's good I'd hate for everyone to sit through another sexual harassment seminar because of my wicked tongue." Oswald laughed causing Butch and Lark to join him.

"To bad you can't do anything about your wicked breath." The mysterious woman said being to only one to laugh at that statement.

"It's called Halitosis!" Oswald cried out in anger. "It's a serious illness that causes millions of Americans to…urh don't try and distract me just tell me what you want or my people are going to be dumping two bodies in Slaughter Swamp tonight!"

The woman held her tongue for a second before saying. "Right pocket."

Oswald signaled Butch to approach the woman as he reached down and quickly pulled a piece of paper from her pants pocket.

"Well what is it?" Oswald asked.

Butch handed the paper to his boss who ran his eyes up and down it. He then looked back at Lark and tilted his head to the side wordlessly signaling the tall woman to let go of their new guest.

Not one for questioning orders Lark let the woman go who didn't lose composer as she did.

Oswald then handed the woman the other glass as he began walking away from her. "This is a rather interesting order. It'll take some time a week maybe and I'd have to get a professional to take in the measurements for most of it, but it's do able."

"That's not a problem for me." The mysterious woman said as she reached into another one of her pockets. Lark held her knife tightly in her hand in case of another attack but calmed herself when all the woman pulled out was a white envelope that she placed on the desk and slide it over .A few green papers stuck out of the top no doubtingly revealing it to be her payment. "I've still got some time before the party."

"But tell me something why come to me a scumbag as you elegantly put it Miss…."

"My names not important but as much as it pains me to say word on the street is you supply the best and that's what I need the best."

Oswald ever so humbly nodded his head. "Yes, Yes I do make sure to leave all my costumers smiling at least the one who are returning costumers that is. But still you have me at a disadvantage. You know me even you even know that charming little nick name I inherited from my father when he used to terrorize Gotham. But all I know about you is that you were able to break in here, make my best people look like common mall security guards and that when you ask for something you have next to zero class asking for it."

The woman placed her drink down and walked right up to Oswald her face almost touching his unusually long pointy nose, the only physical aspect he inherited from Penguin Sr.

"All you need to know about me is I'm the one thing you'll never be, no matter how hard you try."

Butch, Lark, and Oswald all let out an exhausted groan as they simultaneously rolled their heads back. "Please, please tell me you're not associated with a certain cybercriminal with a penchant for riddles."

"I'm not associated with anyone." The woman said as she walked back and grabbed her drink, swirling the glass of alcohol in her hand and tossed it into the office's fire place, causing the lite fire to burn brighter with more rage.

"I'm just a bird of prey." The woman stated as the fire stood behind her as his backing her up.

"…Hey since when was there a fire place in here?"

* * *

"So this is me."

After stopping for food at a nearby roach coach Naruto and Artemis had ended up running together off of rooftops, alleyways and even catching a ride on the top of a few buses until the suit wearing magician stopped right in front of an old brownstone in what was known as the border between the rich and not so well off part of town.

As Naruto began walking up the first few steps of the building herlooked back at Artemis who while holding her portion of their take out stood still not really moving. "What's wrong?"

"I'm just trying to figure something out." Artemis said as she walked up towards Naruto. "Is this the part where we go inside you introduce me to your parents, we eat, and then you talk me up to your room and you show me your _record collection_." She gave a sly smile and quotation marks when she mentioned to words record collection.

"Not really." Naruto reached behind his back again and pulled out the wooden box that held the Spleen of Osiris. "This is actually the part where we go inside, I give this to my roommate, and then we go up to the roof and just eat and maybe talk about teaming up again."

"Teaming up?" Artemis asked.

"I've never really had a partner who could watch my back like you did tonight. If it wasn't for you Grundy would have eventually sucked me dry and ripped me into a new meat hat."

He recognized the skills, which at least validated a reason to hear the guy out. Plus looking at the white bags she and Naruto held Artemis could feel her bare stomach growl in hunger at least she could eat while she listened to the spiky haired punk's proposal. _Punk in a cool Sex Pistols/Ramones sort of way_.

"I got to say when I went out on patrol tonight I never would have guessed it would end up like this." Artemis said while keeping sly smile on. "But I'm glad it did."

Naruto smiled back as he placed the wooden box on his propped up knee freeing up a hand to search for his house keys.

Artemis started to laugh at the magic boy's little circus act wanting to see if he could pull it off. "So this roommate of yours what's he or she like."

Naruto managed to get his keys without dropping anything. And as he began to open the front door he replied. "Well he's a really cool guy, actually this whole places is his. He got it when he moved to Gotham in the sixty's."

"The sixty's?" Artemis asked as she followed Naruto inside the house. "That makes your roommate older then my parents."

As he closed the door behind them Naruto began leading Artemis down the hallway. "Well he's actually he's been around for a really long time, and he knows almost everything there is to know about magic."

"Is he the one who trained you to use magic?"

Naruto nodded. "Well sort of he taught me more basic principles of symbology and few points on identifying some magical creatures but…"

"But what?" Artemis asked as Naruto placed his hand on a door off to the side.

"Don't get me wrong he's really great." Naruto said defensively. "But, well he's been around a really long time and he sort of has well I guess you could say a few personal demons."

"I think for anyone on our side of the glass that's sort of the occupational hazard." Artemis understood having been raised in the not so normal herself. "No matter how old they are."

"Yeah I guess that's true but when I said he has a few personal demons I really should say he has just one, and it's kind of a really big one." With that Naruto pushed the door opened showing on the other side he had lead them into a den.

Rows and rows of books covered all the walls in the room, being stored on bookshelves and propped up right by various knick knacks in place of bookends as they decorated the den.

The only source of light in the room was a lite fireplace that was being attended by someone sitting on a vintage looking easy chair that had a back that was long enough that Artemis couldn't see what the sitter looked at all.

"I trust Solomon Grundy didn't give you too much trouble." A voice from the chair said as from the edge of the furniture Artemis could see a cigar being shook on top of an ash tray that was resting on the top of a double decker tavern style serving cart.

"Well he did at first but I had a little help." Naruto said as he started walking over towards the chair. Artemis followed still just one step behind.

"But I see that you didn't go at it alone after all. you'll have to excuse my surprise Miss it's not often Naruto makes friends with peers his own age let alone striking up a form of acquaintanceship with them."

"That makes me sound like some sort of loser or something." Naruto pouted a little as he set the wooden box on top of the cart. The spiky haired blond then cast his eyes at the cigar in the owner's hand. "You know you really shouldn't be smoking these things they're no better than the old pipes you use to own."

"I know I know. But if one of the perks of having longevity is I won't succumb to sickness is it not my duty to smoke these fine Cuban little delights in the names of those who can't."

"No it doesn't." Naruto said firmly. "Put that out and look at this, we managed to get the spleen out of Grundy. Now we just have to figure out who put it in him and were they got it."

"That can wait for latter right now I believe introductions are in order." The voice said as Artemis saw the cigar being put out on the ashtray and smoke being blown out up towards the ceiling.

"Oh right well this is Artemis." Naruto said introduce the archer. And just as he moved out of the way the chair swirled around revealing the owner of the house to be…A chimpanzee?

Wearing a checkered tweed suit with a black Bon Jovi t-shirt the furry animal flickered his furry fingers of any leftover ash as held up his paw. "Detective Bobo T. Chimpanzee, a pleasure to meet you Artemis."

"D…d..detective?

"Ha ha yes but for simplicity when I'm on the case I go by Detective Chimp."


	5. The Beginning of a Beautiful Partnership

"I…I…what?" Artemis was lost for words the mantra she'd been saying to herself all night in order to make sense of most of what she saw " _it's magic it's magic"_ were suddenly starting to lose steam.

But how else would you explain a talking ape dressed as a cool hip college professor sitting on an easy chair apparently reading a copy of _To Have and Have Not_ before being interrupted by Naruto and herself.

"Artemis!" Naruto whispered harshly into the archer's ear. "Why are you being rude? Shake his hand already."

The girl closed her eyes for a few seconds before opening them as she held out her hand and connected it with the ape's. "Yeah sorry about that it's just that I wasn't expecting you to be so…"

"Hairy?" Detective Chip asked with a smile as he placed his book next to his burned out cigar. He then grabbed the wooden box and got of his easy chair making his way towards a desk covered in books and other research like materials.

"Yeah that's it." Artemis said seeing the glint in the older mammal's eyes as he walked past Naruto and herself, as if he wordlessly said not everyone takes to the whole talking animal thing on the first try.

"Yes I'm afraid it's been a while since I've had a good shave but my latest project has been taking up almost all of my time." Detective Chip said as he placed the box at the end corner of his desk as he pulled up a rolling desk chair to sit in and began flipping through books.

Artemis and Naruto walked over towards the desk stopping right behind Bobo so they could look over his shoulder at his notes. "You shouldn't worry about it after a second look the extra fur makes you look distinguished." Artemis said not wanting to be rude to the magical ape.

Bobo stopped moving around his pappers as he bent his head back and laughed. " _Distinguished_ you'll have to excuse my amusement young lady. But the words used to describe my appearance in the past by anyone your age have always been cute, adorable, or even delightful but never distinguished!"

Artemis looked back at Naruto who lifted both of his hands to give her two thumbs up. "I think he likes you!" Naruto whispered rather loudly to Artemis but shifted his tone as he addressed his roommate. "So Bo do you think that spleen's going to help out with your side project."

Detective Chimp shook his head going tsk tsk as he opened the wooden chest. "It's more than just a side project hopefully the Spleen of Osiris will help me translate this bloodline map and help restore some order to our world." The ape explained as he looked back and forth from the sigils carved into the spleen to the words written in Arabic on a long piece of parchment.

"Well I guess that's good." Naruto stated as he shrugged. "But I still want to know who put that in Grundy in the first place."

"I'll make it my second priority, my boy." Bobo assured as he looked back at the two teens behind him. "No need for you kids to spend the rest of the evening in here why don't you run along and enjoy your dinner together."

Naruto looked at the back of take out in his hands as he opened it and pulled out a burrito. He then waved the aluminum wrapped delight in front of Detective Chip who quickly snatched the tasty treat. "Oh why thank you." Bobo swirled his chair around not wanting to get food stains on his research as he began to dig in. "And if I don't see you again this night, it was lovely meeting you Miss Artemis."

"You too….Detective." The archer nodded.

"Please, call me Bobo." The chimp smiled trying to get the girl to be more familiar with him.

Smiling back Artemis and Naruto waved as they both said silent goodnights and made their way out of the room.

 **THE ROOF**

Maxing and relaxing on two reclined lawn chairs Naruto and Artemis laid back as they ate tacos and looked up at a starry night sky.

"You know it's hard to believe a city as dark and twisted as this can have its lighter moments." She said referring to the sky and the crunchy delight clutched in her hand.

"Well there's a reason why this city's kind of funked up. Mostly because it's on top of a nexus of mystic ley lines." Naruto glanced to the side to see Artemis give him a raised eye brow, or at least what looked like she gave him a raised brow her mask kind of made it hard to tell.

"So what you're saying is that Gotham City has a cluster of magical powerlines running on top of each other like a power plant?"

Naruto let out a laugh as a few shell crumbs rolled off his mouth. "Yeah pretty much Bobo told me that each nexus is made underneath a city or natural landmark or a city or landmark is made because it's on top of a nexus. There's one here, one in Fawcett City, some small town in Kansas and Opal City well those are the ones I can think off the top of my head at least."

"So what are you saying because were on top of a magical cluster of power it causes people to go insane?" Artemis asked looking back up.

"Not really it's kind of like the magic heightens certain aspects of a person's mind. It makes them smarter, crazier, or even unlocks the hidden potential for magical users. But like electricity magic has a positive and a negative side."

"And the magical cluster Gotham's over is negative." Artemis stated not really needing to be an expert on magic to get that one. "So the magic heightens people does it also affect animals, like Bobo."

Naruto finished the last of his taco and relined himself in a seated position as he dusted a few crumbs off. "Well not directly Bobo told me that he got the way he is by drinking from the Fountain of Youth."

"The Fountain of Youth?!" Artemis cried out as she pulled her lawn chair handle and reclined up abruptly. "The Fountain of Youth is real?" the archer asked again rhetorically as she groaned. "I'm starting to thing every legend is out there is true."

Naruto's response to that was just a nonchalant shrug.

Sighing Artemis reached over for a can of half-finished juice. As she took a quick sip Artemis drummed her finger on the can. "So before you mentioned Bobo having a demon inside of him what where you talking about exactly."

"Oh that well you see he's kind of a _recovering_ alcoholic." Naruto said as he swung his legs over the chair.

"….Detective Chimp has a drinking problem." The serious look Naruto flashed her told the archer that he wasn't joking around. "Sorry I wasn't trying to make light of something as serious as that." Artemis said as she swung her legs over to the side of chair as well.

"Let's just not talk about it." Naruto suggested. "Before, I only mentioned the inner demons thing because I didn't know if Bo was having a good day or a bad day. It's just that Bobo's history is his story to tell not mine. Can we talk about something else instead?"

Artemis nodded admiring Naruto sticking up for his friend and mentor like that. "All right how about what you said about us teaming up again in the future?"

Naruto got off his chair completely and started to pace around with his arms over his back. "Well I just thought that there are a lot more mission cases out there."

"So what you want to get a van, travel the country for hunted houses, and pull rubber masks off of criminals while they call us meddling kids." Artemis replied sassily.

"Actually I was thinking more along the lines of us going around the world collecting magical or cursed items saving people and preserving life. Bobo has an intelligence network that he uses to get me on the right path for missions. So far I've been getting by but if that run in with Grundy told me anything it's that from here on out I might need a partner watching my back."

"Why me though?" Artemis asked as she got up and walked up to Naruto. "I'm not magic do you really want me as your partner because you know you need my skills in combat…"

Getting in close Artemis placed her hands on Naruto's shoulders and whispered into his ear. "…Or do you only want me for another personal reason?" she asked sultry getting a little satisfaction that she managed to get the sorcerer to shiver.

"I..I'll admit that I was a little disappointed that I couldn't get you to give me mouth to mouth when we first met." The boy said desperately trying to walk backwards in an attempt to hide his red face. "Yet it's because you're not magic that you were able to help me. Your skills at well, stabbing people with pointy objects is what helped me out."

Walking back herself Artemis looked like she was pondering to herself. "If we do this then it's like you said I'm your partner not your assistant and definitely not your sidekick."

"Of course fifty/fifty." Naruto said "Fifty percent of the glory and fifty percent of the blame if by saving a town from a vampire nest we accidently set it on fire with a misplaced Sun spell."

Artemis let out a laugh as she shook her head in disbelieve. "How about we iron out the details in the morning, it's getting pretty late."

Naruto watched on as Artemis ran across the roof top and jumped over the edge. In less than a second latter a grabbling arrow fired into the air dragging along the long haired girl with her as she sailed across the sky and into the night. "I'll see you tomorrow!" she yelled out towards the spiky haired one.

"Tomorrow." Naruto said quietly to himself as he plopped back down on one of the lawn chairs. "Tomorrow for sure!" as he closed his eyes and relaxed on the outdoor furniture a blast of wind made him get right back up.

Turning his head every which way he pulled his head back and looked at the sky as he heard a blood curling scream echo into the air. Right above him Naruto could see a pair of giant bat like wings flapping higher and higher into the night sky. And thanks to the back drop of the bright crescent moon the boy could see faintly that this giant bat had the legs of what appeared to be a man's.

Instead of getting worked up about it he sat back down and closed his eyes groaning out in exhaustion. "I'll deal with it tomorrow."


	6. Or Something

**August 7, 22:42 EDT Gotham City**

" _Is this it; was this how I'm going to die?"_

Lying on the floor of a laboratory Artemis Crook out of her hero persona was looking straight up as a few tears trickled down from her eyes and a heavy about of blood flowed out of her neck as she was trying her best to stay calm.

But this wasn't what she trained for, she never prepared for this kind of pain or experience as the archer felt the world around her grow colder and her own vision started to phase out, Artemis could barely make the two responsible for the current level of destruction of the lab.

One was a giant hairy monster at least a few feet taller than the average human as it was being held up against a glass cabinet full of chemicals by a human shaped person with the only features visible to her being the guy's long black hair.

Artemis could make out the shapes less and less but could defiantly feel the fire those two caused from their battle as the smoke in the room was building up and making it even harder to breath.

"Come on Artemis you have to hang in there!"

And there he was kneeling beside her. With his coat folded under her head, and hands pressing his neck tie over her open neck wounds Naruto tried his best to tourniquet the injury as he applied first aid all the while making sure not to block Artimes' airway.

But it was a moot point as the girl gargled up a wad of blood from her mouth as it sided down her lips and merged with the river coming out of her neck.

"Don't worry Artemis this isn't how this is going to end, do you hear me?!"

Closing her Artemis last thoughts before she fell down the abyss were. _"How did we even end up here…."_

* * *

 **August 7, 20:18 EDT Gotham City**

Laying on her stomach on the roof top of the tallest skyscraper in the Otisburg district in Gotham Artemis had her sights locked onto the scope of a high powered slightly modified sniper rifle.

Going for a stealthier look the archer had forgone her green uniform for tonight in favor of a black turtleneck and black pants combo. Unfortunately the top wasn't ideal for the summer heat as Artemis tried her best to roll the neck sleeve down with one finger.

"How's it going have you seen anything yet?" stepping from out of the shadows Naruto dressed in his usual suit held in his hands two cups of iced drinks as he laid down next to his new friend and handed her one of the cups.

"No, not yet." Artemis stated as she reached over for the cup only to look back at it as she held it. "I thought you said you were getting coffee?"

"I did." Naruto said as he pulled out a pair of binoculars, aiming them towards Artemis' line of sight. "It's ice coffee."

Artemis sat the cup aside as she went back to handling the rifle. "You know I did a few test fires with this thing before you got here with the non-lethal rounds, and I got to say I'm surprised that the silencer doesn't compromise the range or accuracy on the rifle."

"Well you have to hand it to Oz. When you buy from him your buying from the best there is." Naruto sat his binoculars down for a second as something crossed his mind. "But then again I've never really gotten gear from anyone else so…."

"Speaking of dear old Oz how much did you pay Beak Nose for most of this equipment?" Artemis asked as she pulled out the anemometer around her neck to check the current wind speed.

"Nothing too big I just promised that a few days from now I'd head down to Gateway City for him to see what's been holding up some construction project he invested into, something about cellphone towers or something."

"Yeah well favors aside I've been meaning to ask about this bat monster of yours, are you sure what you saw wasn't just Batman riding on some new glider system the other night?"

"Well not unless Batman gained the power to scream really loud like that biker lady from Star City, and changed his mask to look like an actual bat's face. Other wise I'm pretty sure it wasn't him." Naruto said sarcastically as he rolled over a bit to face his body towards Artemis and propped his head on his open palm.

"Ok so you saw a half man half bat creature a…Man-Bat is this the sort of thing we should be handling, cause I think this is more like animal control's department or at least if they had the same budget as the National Guard."

"Well it depends on when we catch it." Naruto said as he took a sip of his drink. "If this thing's just a really big super bat then we can call in the Bat Conservation Trust see if they can't take back to their headquarters in London and if it's a were-bat then I'll just cure it until it turns back into a regular person again."

Artemis pulled back from the scope and looked back at Naruto with a skeptical look. "I'm sorry did you just say were-bat like a werewolf?"

"Kind of see there are actually a lot of were-creatures a person can turn into." Naruto replied as pulled out an old leather journal from his jacket inner breast pocket. On the cover of the book Artemis could see a some what familiar giant embroiled white W against the black leather as the only symbol identifying the book. She watched curiously as Naruto thumbed through the handwritten tome until landing close to the book's end.

"See right here right next to Shapeshifters we have skin walkers, revenants, and finally were-creatures. But the one thing they all have in common is that silver is their kryptonite just one touch to any exposed skin and the creature will start to sizzle like cast a iron skillet...fyi in case we ever tangle with any demons in the near future their weakness is iron so..."

"Let's just worry on one supernatural creature at a time." Artemis said without looking up as she pulled the book over towards herself and started to read the passage on were-creatures out loud. "It's all right here the mythology behind their origins, affects from lunar cycles, their strengths and how to kill…uh?"

Artemis stopped reading out loud as she took a closer look at the book. Flipping a couple of pages forward and backward it was apparent most of the original passages were rewritten as a lot of the original cursive black writing was edited with red print.

"Naruto did you change a few things in this book?" Artemis asked.

"Well yeah don't get me wrong a lot of what was originally in there was helpful. But almost all the ways the original owner of the journal had in dealing with the monsters in that book was to kill them…."

Reaching over Naruto turned to the part of the journal were a textbook's index would be to show a listed series of mystic circular seals, each one containing its own set of symbols and equations around the trim and inner workings.

"….But over the years with a little trial and error along with the help from a sealing codex I managed to find a way to turn were-creatures back into their ordinary human selves.

"So instead of ramming a silver spike into the heart of the beast, you want me to shoot it in the head with this rifle?" Artemis asked as she could tell the spike thing was what the original journal owner advised in dealing with most monsters.

"Well you won't be able to kill anything with these bullets." Naruto held two golden bullets each piece of ammunition had different symbols carved into the shells. The mystic turned his hand over making the bullets rollover into Artemis' palm as she looked at the pieces of ammunition.

The Archer couldn't help but look at Naruto playfully. "Magic bullets, really?"

Naruto gave Artemis an encouraging wink. "Just trust me on this with your long range skills at the start I'll be able to turn this beast back into a human, you know if it's not just a giant bat."

"So how exactly are you luring this monster here anyway?" Artemis asked as Naruto wasn't too clear on that part of the plan when he called her this morning.

Naruto reached into is coat pocket again and pulled out a manila file folder. He then opened it showing that among context was a map of the surrounding area that the two of them were currently in. "Ok so based on some eye witness testimony, a few shoots from the city's cctv cameras, and some leg work on Bobo's end he was able to piece to together that creature's habitual flight pattern is around in this location…" the map had a red circle around said area which Artemis read out loud.

"Gotham U."

"Yup, it's just a few blocks away so the next time our flying friend circles the campus it'll pick up the little snack I left for it."

"Wow, this is impressive did Bobo do all of this in one day?" Artemis asked as she looked over the paper work.

Naruto scoffed as is the archer had said something utterly ridiculous. "One day? Artemis he's Detective Chimp he got it all of this done on a two hour break from his own project."

Artemis couldn't help but widen her eyes at that deceleration. "And they say that Batman's the world's greatest detective. But wait you said before something about a snack does Bobo's research or the monster journal mention what man shaped bats like to eat other then people?"

Naruto ever so modest let out a small some what smug laugh."Well I covered that myself. And if this creature's anything like regular bats then it's going to love my special blend of rotten fruit mixed with a couple of dozen different mashed up bugs topped off with a splash of blood. I left a small amount of the bait at the campus to catch it's attention then left a trail of bigger and bigger piles leading up to the all you can eat buffet I left down there." Naruto pointed down towards the building roof top across from their location were Artemis had her rifle positioned towards.

"Alright Mr. Monster Expert then answer this, what's keeping the Man-Bat from just ditching the route made of those treats you left for it and instead just pick up your personal scent you left behind at Gotham U or at any of the treat sites, following you straight towards us instead of across the street were we can ambush it?"

Naruto just smiled as rolled onto his back and switched his pointing finger to the giant neon sign that was illumining right behind the two of them on their roof top. "Well first off I actually don't produce a natural scent anymore, alchemy incident long story. And second even if the creature heads towards us we're protected, we got Gotham's oldest house watching our backs tonight, literally!"

Looking over her shoulder Artemis couldn't help but cover her eyes from the giant glowing W washing over them. "Wayne International Plaza."

"That's right Wayne…..wait I thought we were on Wayne Tower?" Naruto did a double take as he looked at the smaller words under the giant W.

"No the tower's on the other side of the city next to Grand Ave Station." Artemis nodded off to the distance were another faint W was glowing in the same greenish blue.

"Ok whatever the building we're on, the important thing is that we're surrounded by a light that's on a spectrum that bats can't stand. Unlike the opposite were I laid out the master bait."

Having said the last two words from his previous too sentence fast Naruto missed the disgusted look Artemis flashed him as she looked up at the second tallest building's own neon logo. "Stagg Enterprises."

"Whose sign is glowing in red, a light spectrum that bats can stay docile towards."

Artemis still had the monster journal open, going back on the chapter on were-creatures she saw written right there all though the outdated notes was a suggestion about laying traps next to lanterns encased with red lenses the principal was the same. But at that moment something else dawned on the archer.

Closing the book altogether she looked back at the W on the cover of the journal then turned her head towards the giant glowing W right behind her, they were stylized in the same font. "Naruto who's journal did you say this was, before you got and changed some of it?" she asked out loud but found the answer herself as she did the sensible thing and looked at the inside of the book cover and read out the massage inscribed onto it.

 _Within this journal I have record all the horrors and maddens I had the extreme displeasure of experiencing, us my knowledge in good health to deliver yourselves from evil- Alan Solomon Wayne._

"Yup you really got to hand it to the Waynes." Naruto said as he stared up at the glowing W. "Besides being gazillionaires some of them actually had jobs. Some of them became doctors some even were judges but only one of them dedicated his life to be a businessman by day and by night became a protector of the innocent...sort of."

 **"Screech!"**

A loud and powerful high pitched cry pierced right into the night alerting both Naruto and Artemis to get into their respected positions either behind a rifle or a pair of binoculars.

Aimed high above them Naruto could see mighty leathery brown wings flapped furiously in the sky as well as the creature they were attached to. The monster moved too fast for Naruto to see the bat completely. But once it did a quick lap around the Staag Enterprises' air space it landed swiftly on the roof right on the building's helipad were a giant brown sack was waiting for it.

"It's found the master bait." Naruto said quietly.

"Ok seriously stop saying that!" Artemis whispered back as she loaded the magic shells into her rifle as slowly as possible.

"Stop saying what?" Naruto asked innocently.

"You know what!" Artemis said firmly.

"What? All I said was master...oh ha I'm sorry." Naruto said while he couldn't help but chuckle at himself. "For the record I honestly didn't see the double entendre there."

"For the record what you were saying was a pun not a double entendre." Artemis said as she direct her sights from the sack and onto bat creature as she rechecked her current wind speed as she did.

"Alright big buy just hold still and it will be over in a second." Artemis said as she aimed for Man-Bat, grinning a bit as the monster used the thumbs on it's wings to slice the bag open and begin feasting on the living bugs and rotten fruit inside.

Watching the creature gorge it's self from the custom made goody bag Naruto lazily panned his binoculars to his right saying. "Alright I think we're in the clear the monsters taken the bait note I just said bait!" he said rather sternly as the mystic let the binoculars dangle off his neck as he rummaged around his pocket and placed a silver ring band on his finger.

Artemis who rolled her eyes at Naruto's last statement but saw Naruto's man jewelry from her peripheral as the ring sparkled from the neon lights. "What's with the ring?" the Archer asked. "Don't tell me there's a Mrs. Uzumaki out there?"

"I hope not." Naruto said as he scrunched up his face. "It's for our creature feature this ring will singe and weaken it long enough for me to knock it out."Naruto then began to let out a laugh."But you know it's kind of funny this is the first time I went on a monster hunt were nothing went wrong like some normal person coming out of nowhere getting in the way of things ."

It was at that moment after Naruto used the binoculars for one final sweep the mystic's sights ended up focusing on the roof's accesses door, which happened to open a second later.

"Oh come on seriously, someone's on the roof!" Naruto exclaimed as he got Artemis' attention.

Not losing her mark the archer asked back while still in position. " How could anyone be _able_ to get on the roof didn't you barricade the access door or disable the building's motion detectors!"

Naruto took off his twin mounted spyglass as he looked back at Artemis, confused. "Disable the what in the who now?"

Artemis let out an agitated grunt as she asked. "Well who's on the roof with tall dark and hairy a couple of rent a cops or something?"

Looking back in hurry Naruto placed the binoculars back up strapless only to immediately place them back down in dread as he saw who else was on the roof. "…Or something."

* * *

"For the last time lady I'm not answering any of your questions!"

Coming out from the door way and onto the roof was a young woman. Somewhere in her early to mid-twenties was a tall statuesque blond, short haired woman who wore a long sleeved white top that showed off her bare shoulders as well as the black straps that were connected to what could only be described as the hardest working brassier in all of the clothing industry as it contained a bust of anime proportions.

She was soon followed by another woman around the same age but instead was slightly smaller, more petite and dressed as a cleaning woman with long red hair.

"Like I said before Miss Starr my name is Vale, Vicki Vale of the Gotham Gazette." The undercover reporter stated firmly not wanting lose the bravado she had been building up to this moment. "Now I know you are a busy woman having just bought a whole corporation and all but our readers as well as the other citizens of Gotham City have the right to know what your first official act is going to be as the new owner of Stagg Enterprises."

Vicki pulled out her cellphone and turned on her audio recording app as she started the paparazzi like press conference. "Alongside Wayne Enterprises and GothCorp this company is responsible for employing a majority of the middle class work force in the city. Are you planing to create more jobs by expanding, down size your current work force or are you going to just clean house and strip the company down and sell off the assists piece by piece."

The woman in white called Miss. Starr let out a chuckle as she turned around facing the red haired woman. "Look I know you and everybody else in this city have like a million questions."

Holding out her hand like she was describing a news headline Miss. Starr continued. "Simon Stagg the founder and C.E.O of Stagg Enterprises mysteriously disappears." She placed her hand down and folded it with her other under her mighty chest. "And six months latter some woman who looks like she belongs on the cover of Cosmopolitan instead of Wired Magazine comes out of nowhere to buyout the falling company."

"Now that's interesting." Vicki said as she lowered her phone her investigation scenes tingling all over. "Wired Magazine, you just said Wired instead of Forbes or Bloomberg. Does this mean your restructuring the company from energy and chemical research and development, into a more technological one like Kord Industries?"

The Lady Starr stared at the reporter quite intently before she raised a brow. "You know since I got here I've been hounded by journalists from all over and from almost every kind of publication."

Rising her hand she began to list them off. "Jack Ryder, Iris West and even the legendary Lois Lane so and please take extreme offense to this but, if none of your peers who are at the top of the respected game of journalism couldn't get so much as a blurb out of me what makes you think you can?"

The red haired reporter didn't lose her stone resolve even after hearing the insult she just got handed to her pride. But she did slip on a small grin at the last reporter mentioned. "When Lane was here did she happened to mention that she's a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist?"

Miss. Starr had let out a somewhat snorted laugh as she shrugged her shoulders. "She may have mentioned something like that when Miss. Lane was being dragged out of here by at least three security guards after she ambushed me in the lady's room."

Vicki started to laugh at hearing that she could help but to do so but her laughing slowly started to slow down as looked around the roof top and a feeling of dread was starting to turn her giggling to nervous laughter. "Is…is that why we're on the roof you're just waiting until your security staff gets up here?"

Miss Starr who was looking over her own smartphone didn't look up from it as she said. "What? no during off business hours this whole building is automated on a security system until morning at least until the buyout's been finalized."

All that statement did was made the red haired reporter lose whatever bravado she had left as her knees deiced to start shaking in terror. "So…so you just lead me up here to throw me off the roof, is that it?" she quietly yelled out in terror.

"What?" that statement totally caught Starr by surprise as she looked up and did a double take. "Are you serious why would I throw you off the roof?"

"Because this is Gotham and you practically said it yourself that I'm not actually well known enough that if I up and disappeared no one would ever wonder what happened to me!" Vicki declared even with so much fear you'd swear she was tripping on Scarecrow Gas.

Starr shook her head as she let out a scoffing laugh . "You're kidding right? I know this is city is like someone built a nightmare out of metal and stone but I didn't come here and spend a ton of money to buy an entire corporation and it's subsidiaries just to start throwing annoying people from roof tops…..and f.y.i you followed me up here!"

"Oh…" Vicki Vale calmed down a little as she let out a very deep breath and began to laugh a little hysterically. "I'm sorry it's just, why are we up here?"

"Well _I'm_ up here because I thought I heard something land on the building's helipad." Starr said rather irritated as she began walking towards said pad.

"Wait you heard something up here?" Vicki asked skeptically as she held up her phone again her bravado starting to rise again. "How'd you hear something coming from outside on the roof when I started interviewing you when we were at least five floors down?"

"Ok first off this isn't an interview and second…..ahhhh."Starr stopped again as she began flabbergasting her words. "Oh I err you see it was the motion detectors yes I have the roof's motion detectors linked to an app on my phone alerting me when something's wrong in the building!" she said nervously shacking said mobile device back and forth as proof.

"Really because I was standing right next to you and I didn't hear any…"

"Vibrating, my phone was on silent!" Starr really nervously as the emotional balance was starting to shift. "I felt and heard the alert in my pocket so here I am."

"Then why didn't you just call the security company or the cops your a one percenter you know they actually come as fast as they can when people like you call them." Vicki felt she the last bits of what ever fear she had leave her as her reporters intuition was telling her that there was defiantly more to the mysterious Karen Starr then just a simple hostile takeover story.

"Well you see I didn't call the police because I don't need them to fend of my own castle from invaders." Karen immediately smacked her own head as she felt the idiocy as soon as it left her lips.

Vicki actually began laughing normally at Starr's explanation. "Defending your castle from invaders who do you think you are Maxi Zeus?"

Starr starred down the reporter who at this point was reaching the maximum level of annoyance. But that didn't stop the red head from continuing between breathes. "S…sorry your majesty didn't mean to offend you it's just that if you really are hearing imaginary detectors going off maybe we should call the nice flocks down at Arkham."

Starr rolled her eyes as she started to walk alongside a short wall that ran in the middle of the roof as she turned a corner in order to face the helipad. "I swear if this is another reporter sneaking onto my property I'm going to burn a hole in their brain."

But what she saw wasn't another reporter but a very large man size anthropomorphic bat creature ripping into a burlap sack full of living bugs and fruit as she saw a whole centipede crawl on the bat's face before it got close enough to it's mouth that it was able to slurp the incest down like a strand of spaghetti.

Starr just held a deadpan expression and sighed. "Oh great now I got this guy to deal with guy!" she said sarcastically as she rubbed her eyes in frustration. "This night gets better and better."

"Who is it?" Vicki asked as she came around the corner. "Did Lane come back but with the Big Guy from Metropolis with her." Vicki's laughter and new found cockiness died almost instantly the moment her eyes laid on the John Carpenter like monster.

"Oh my..." Was all Vale said as she ducked back around the corner but when she saw that Starr was just standing there the reporter went back and pulled on one of Starr's arms trying to drag her behind the wall only to not move so much as an inch from the taller woman.

Rolling her eyes and deciding to play along Karen calmly walked over towards the wall picking up one surprised reporter off the ground as she still held onto her arm.

"OK NOT SUPERMAN DEFINITELY, DEFINITELY NOT SUPERMAN!" Vicki screamed in a high pitched whisper "That thing's more like Batman's crazy cousin or something!"

"Or something." Karen said quietly as she placed her hand under her chin in a thinkers pose. "I thing he's called Monster Bat, or Batwing no that's the name of the plane...mmmmmm."

"How are you so calm right now that bat monster thing's probably going to eat us!" Vicki screeched.

"Well why not?" Karen shrugged. "This city's constantly under attack by that guy dressed as a clown that other guy dressed as a scarecrow and that plant lady and to a lesser extent that annoying moth guy."

"Yeah well all of those criminals are just a bunch of jackasses running around in idiotic costumes, but thing looks like it flew straight out of hell!" Vicki said as she slumped down on the floor and tried to cover her head with her arms.

"Well it wouldn't be the first time." Karen said quietly as an image of a broken a burning city entered her mind as the mid-day sun was blocked off by a squad of flying demons. The memory left just as quickly as it entered, as Karen Starr looked down at the whimpering reporter beside her.

" _Sorry about this Vale, but the only way I can deal with this over grown rodent is if you're not around to see and blab about it_." Karen thought as she raised one finger getting it ready to strike. " _No one can know my secret._ "

 **PEW  
**

And that's when she heard it. The world around Karen began to slow down as the sound of a gun with some sort of silencer firing off echoed into her head. What made this particular shot different then the numerous others bouncing around all over the semi-crime ridden city was the altitude she heard it tear into the air.

Going at a speed that could only match up to at least five other people on the planet Karen went around the corner again and saw that the bat monster had at least perceived the projection as well as it was slowly turning it head right towards the oncoming bullet.

But when Karen focused her sight on said bullet and zeroed in on it she could make out a series of glowing sigils carved onto the projectile.

"A magic bullet?" was all the statuesque could say as the world around her sped up and caught up with her as she bore witness not to a bat creature getting it's brains blown out, but it's clock cleaned as a teenage boy with yellow spiky hair wearing a black suit had his fist extended out as he crashed right into the bat.

* * *

"What the hell?" Artemis took her eyes off her scope as she looked over were Naruto was just a few seconds ago only to see any empty golden shell rolling across the roof. "So wait did I just shoot Naruto out of a sniper rifle or did the bullet just explode Naruto down there?" The archer asked out loud as she looked back into the scope and saw Naruto trying to hold the bat monster in a head lock as it attempted to buck the teenager off its back.

"I still have one more bullet…" Artemis didn't know if the second round was meant for her or if it shot out another Naruto either way she wasn't going to just be stuck up here all night. So the young girl grabbed the only other weapons she brought for tonight and strapped them on as she took aim once more and, waiting for the next opportunity for a clear shot.

* * *

"Stop moving around you jerk I'm trying to help you!" Naruto shouted as he held on for dear life as the bat tried it's best to buck the young sorcerer off its back.

But Naruto didn't falter as he held out one hand and pressed it on the bat's forehead. Naruto looked down on the silver ring that he wore on the hand trying to see if the metal was starting to singe the creature's fur and skin.

It was also in that moment that the bat creature already mad that it had it's close to midnight snack interrupted started to flap it's wing as hard as it could getting it a few feet off the ground. The rapid flapping of its wings caused Naruto to lose his grip on the bat's neck and instead shimmy onto one of its wings, unfortunately that had been the creature's attention as the second Naruto held onto the monster's wrist it gave out one last flap that was so powerful it not only flung Naruto off, but also projected him across the Stagg building's roof.

But luckily for Naruto someone decided not to be a spectator in this bout any longer.

"Don't worry kid I got you!" Karen shouted as she spread her arms out and caught Naruto before he could fly off the building. She ended up clutching the teenager as tightly as she could holding him and herself upright with Naruto's face buried in her chest.

"First the annoying reporter, then the giant bat monster now you, were are all you people coming from?" Karen looked down expecting an answer but saw that the boy in the suit couldn't give one do to the fact that her bountiful bosoms were crushing the sides of his face.

"Whoops sorry there sport." The young C.E.O released her grip around Naruto getting him to drop a few inches from the ground and as he tried his best to catch his breath if it weren't for another problem he was facing.

"I think you broke my nose." Naruto said as blood dripped from one of his nostrils. "Gezz what's your brassiere made out of mithril?" he asked sarcastically as he tilted his head back.

"Sorry about that Kid." Karen let out a soft laugh finding the whole ordeal humorous well she did until she looked down at her white blouse seeing a giant red stain on it. "Hey you got blood on my favorite top!"

 **PEW!**

Karen was so distracted by Naruto she missed a second shot being fired right next to her as a young girl dressed in black appeared in a same flash of light like the boy. "Seriously were the heck are you people coming from and why's this one dressed like Steve Mcqueen when he was in the movie Bullitt ?"

Artemis who landed in on the roof of the building in a crouching position quickly sprung up and drawing out two twin pistol crossbows from her double shoulder holsters as she aimed one at the bat and one towards Naruto's general direction.

"Naruto what happened are you ok?" Artemis asked as her eyes made a beeline from Naruto face to the tall older woman's shirt.

"It's not what you think." Naruto said as he stood in front of Artemis with his arms crossed. "I got a nose bleed from that woman's chest!"

Any and all worry quickly dropped from Artemis face as she looked at Naruto with a monotone expression and quietly said under her breath as she looked away from him. "….hentai."

"Not like that!" Naruto shouted. "What do you think this is an anime?"

"All right as entertaining as tonight's been why are you kids on my roof, is it because of that guy?" Karen asked pointing at the monster creature that was making its way towards them.

Naruto swiped some blood from his nose and started to make hand signs and Artemis remained so both her crossbows were pointed at the same target.

Karen just looked between Naruto and Artemis, Vicki vale who was now recording everything that was happening on her phone and then bat creature who let out an unholy screech that could shatter glass.

"Well Naruto I couldn't see did the ring test work?" Artemis asked. "Are we dealing with a werebat?"

"No." Naruto said as he finished his hand seals and held out a scroll. "I'm more or less leaning towards the giant super bat theory."

Artemis took that info in as good news see how she didn't exactly have any silver tipped arrow or flechettes on hand. "Well it doesn't matter what it is one way or another Man-Bat's going down tonight!"

"Man-Bat that's his name!" Karen shouted as she slammed her fist into her empty palm. "Oh man I can't believe I forgot a Bizzaro name like that." Letting out a satisfying laugh as that name thing had actually been bugging a small part of her super charged brain she saw Naruto, Artemis and even the Man-bat give a confused sideways head turn. "Ahh I mean who are you meddling kids...oh no a bat monster man save me ahahaha." She then threw her arms up in the air and walked over towards the wall in half none believable panic.

Sticking her head out from around the corner just above Vale's Miss Star whispered under her breath. "Ok I think they bought it."

"What?"

"I said shut up and watch the fight, or battle or what ever two kids vs a giant bat thing is."


	7. Of Leather Wings and Scaly Feet

"Alright let's get this party started!" Naruto cried out as he slammed his scroll into the ground below him.

"What do you think this is someone's parent free house, or a secluded lake in the woods no one's starting any parties here!" Karen shouted from her hiding spot alongside Vicki Vale who was recording everything on her smartphone. "Seriously all of you people get off my property!" The C.E.O demanded.

Man-Bat's giant mouse like ears twitched rapidly right as it bent it's legs and jumped off high into the sky right as a volley of glowing golden chains sprouted out of the ground like breaching sharks attacking their prey.

Using it's wings to perform a loop to twirl it's body around Man-Bat extended its leg out as it performed a heel drop kick aiming it right for Naruto's head.

"Damn it!" Naruto swore as he slung his arms down getting his coat off and revealing that he had the sleeves of his orange dress shirt rolled up.

Crossing his arms together over his head the sigil tattoos on Naruto's forearms started to glow just as Man-Bat's foot slammed onto the young mystic. Naruto grunted through his teeth as his legs buckled down and the roof top under him started to give in due to the impact.

"Oh come on!" Karen yelled out in frustration. "Can't you fight the forces of evil some were else?"

"Sorry lady." Artemis said in a halfhearted apology as she aimed out her twin crossbow pistols. "But what can we say other then, welcome to Gotham!" with that the young archer started firing off a few rounds from her weapons as she ran around both Naruto and Man-Bat.

But as Artemis left Karen and by proximity Vicki's presence the business woman couldn't help but look at the firing crossbow and sigh out in nostalgia. "I miss Helena."

"What was that?" Vicki asked as she still had her phone aimed at the young heroes but looked up at Karen Starr.

"Oh err is said I miss Helena…. Helena, Montana were I'm from apparently." Karen whispered the last part as she pinched the bridge of her nose in frustration.

Meanwhile Artemis was getting nowhere from her attack as Man-Bat who was still trying to press it's weight down on Naruto used its wings to deflect the barrage of bolts aimed for it.

Finally having enough of his stalemate Naruto went back on the offensive as he bit his bottom lip trying to draw out some blood.

Man-Bat switched it's attention back on Naruto when it's nose picked up on the coppery stench of the liquid of life. It look back down just as a black pole narrowly smashed it in the face.

Taking a swoop back and away from Naruto both Man-Bat and Artemis saw that the black pole had come out from Naruto's mouth like a sword sallower doing his act in reverse.

With his arms free again Naruto pulled the black rod out of his mouth completely displaying that the weapon was the half the size of a standard quarter staff.

"What is that?" Artemis asked as Naruto spun the rod around his hand getting some of his spit to slide off of it.

"This is the Ruyi Jingu Bang the magical staff once wielded by the immortal monkey king Sun Wukong." Naruto slammed the staff of the monkey king on the ground causing a series of rune marks carved into the weapon to glow gold as it quickly faded back.

"In his hands Sun Wukong could alter the size of this staff to make it as small as a tooth pick or as big as a support pillar for a temple." Naruto stated as he pointed the weapon towards Man-bat.

"Ok then what can that staff do when it's in your hands?" Artemis asked.

Naruto held his pose staying completely serious as he said. "….I can't alter the size one way or another so it's stuck like this...but when I bash it on people's heads it hurts them really, really badly." Naruto immediately held the staff with two hands at the base like a saber and charged right for Man-Bat.

But every swing, strike, and thrust was useless as the creature's ears had once again proven to be an unbeatable asset.

"It's no use it's like trying to fight a blind old kung fu master….. or Daredevil." Artemis said as she reloaded her crossbows.

Naruto looked over at Artemis as he used the tip of the Ruyi Jingu Bang to scratch the top of his head. "I get the kung fu bit but I don't think Evel Knievel was a fighter." Naruto immediately dodged Man-Bat as it charged at the mystic baring it's teeth in hopes of sinking them in Naruto's flesh.

"I didn't mean an actual daredevil I meant Daredevil. You know the guy who's blind and has super sense that act like a sonar, Ben Affleck played him in the movie version."

Even in the heat of battle were Naruto was holding back Man-bat by holding up the magical staff in the monster clenching jaws he was more invested on what Artemis had just said. "Yeah I still don't know who you're talking about I don't see that one…..but Affleck was the bomb in Phantoms!"

Artemis rolled her eyes as she fired off another round of shots. But all her attack did was cause Man-Bat to release it's jaws from Naruto's staff and go up in the air again leaving the mystic to deal with the on coming projectiles himself.

"Hey!" Naruto cried out as he spun the Ruyi Jingu Bang around with one hand deflecting all the shots. "Granted Phantoms itself bomb at the box office doesn't mean you can take it out on me."

"What the hell are they talking about?" Karen asked out loud as she was getting more and more agitated by the second. "I've had enough of this. It's time I end this myself." She said as she gripped the side of the wall she was somewhat behind and managed to crush a piece of the concrete off of it.

But the C.E.O's plan had a wrench thrown into it, a wrench by the name of Vale. Said reporter carefully crouch/side stepped away from her hiding spot as she continued to record Naruto and Artemis' fight.

"I am so going to get a Pulitzer for this or at least a Neil Adams Award." Vicki whispered to herself as not to get her voice on the video recording put was heard by Ms. Starr via super hearing. Unfortunately the young reporter had her head so far up her own ass that she was inching her self closer and closer to a circuit box that had a very ominous red lever sticking out on one of the sides.

Vicki who was still crouched down bumped right into the box knocking herself off balance. "Oh crap!" she cried out as she waved her free hand around hoping to catch something to stop her from falling and wouldn't you know her hand landed right onto the lever which she then pulled thanks to the unwanted momentum.

It was then the giant red neon sign of Stagg Industries went out casting pure darkness on the roof top as the city lights were to far down to illuminate the area.

"What the hell!" Naruto cried out in slight terror. "Hey Miss tall blond lady did you remember to pay your electric bill or something?"

In the midst of darkness Karen's eyes were able to peer past the pitch black seeing that everyone including Man-Bat who was still hoovering in the air, in the same position as before. "Nothing's wrong with the power. A certain delusional journalist pulled the switch for the giant sign out here, can't you use your magic to I don't know cast a spell of illumination or something?"

"Well I could or…." A second later and a light shined out of Naruto's hand. "I can just use this flash light that I carry with me incase of emergencies." Casting the light around Naruto landed the spot light on Vicki.

He then motioned the reporter to flip back the light switch to turn the neon sign back on. Unfortunately Naruto had aimed his light on the switch on the opposite side of the junction box.

"Wait a second that's not the right switch!" But Karen's outcry was a second too late as the moment the lever was raised instead of a dim red light of Staag Enterprises a brighter sign directly above the old one shined instead colored in the higher end of the spectrum.

Man-Bat with it's high pitched vocal cords let out a unholy screech as it tried it's best to shield it's eyes away from sign by cutting it's losses and simply abandoning the area all together.

With the beat of its mighty wings the creature known as Man-Bat took to the skies once again as it let out a cry of pain and used its internal instincts to guild itself away from danger.

Back on the roof top of what used to be Stagg Enterprises Artemis, Naruto, Vicki, and Karen all lined up in a row running down vertically along the edge of the building all watched on as the creature fled from the scene.

Naruto and Artemis slowly turned their heads towards the opposite direction as they both glared daggers at Miss Vale.

The reporter slowly started to walk away from the edge, intimidated after seeing one of the teenagers summoning out rows of glowing chains from the scroll still clutched in his hand, and the other shooting out barrages of sharp arrows that had still littered the entire roof.

"N….now before any of you say anything I just want you all to know I just saved all of our lives!" the reporter shouted as she pointed at the two teenagers and Miss Starr who just had a hand on her hip and shook her head disappointingly at Vale. "If it wasn't for me…"

"If it wasn't for you we would have been able to capture Man-Bat instead of scaring him off." Artemis shouted at the older woman. "Now he's probably going to end up hurting some one cause you caused him to run off in a tizzy!"

Vicki couldn't help but glance up to what it was that made Ma-Bat run off, it was a giant neon sign that was hanging just above the old Stagg one but instead of the same calming red this one illuminated in the bright white spelling out the words, Starrware Industries.

"Look I know that your all upset but look on the bright side." Vicki held her phone back up and aimed it right at Naruto and Artemis. "How about an exclusive, a story about two teenage superheroes fighting a giant monster bat's probably a better story then the story behind….." Vicki turned around again and said. "…Starrware Industries, seriously Starrware?"

Vicki faced forward just to take a step back as Naruto had closed the gap between them. "For the record I'm not super…" he paused as he held out his hand and bloo out a pocket pull of pink dust that covered Vicki's face causing the reporter to cough, roll her eyes to the back of her head, and pass out. "…..and I'm not exactly a hero." Nartuo finished saying as he used his dust free hand to grab the smart phone from Vicki's hands before she collapsed on the ground.

"What is that stuff?" Artemis asked as she walked over towards Naruto.

"Sandman's Ash essentially it knocks people out and fogs up their memories of the last few hours." Naruto answered as he shrugged. "It comes in handy when you just save someone from a hoard of hipster teenage vampires and they don't take the whole oh crap I can live in a world where aliens are a totally normal thing but I'm going to scream for about half an hour when I find out my anti establishment boyfriend and his friends are the living dead."

"So you just magically roofied this poor woman is that what your saying?" Artemis asked in monotone.

"What! No I didn't. Come on that's not funny, Artemis." Naruto said seriously. "This stuff just helps those who can't handle the Supernatural well...and I also use it on those who handle it too well you wouldn't believe how many crazy normal people are out there."

But just as the mystic finished giving the archer his justification on using Sandman's Ash Karen took Vicki's phone from Naruto's hand and crushed it effortlessly in her own.

Naruto and Artemis let out a unison. "Wow." As Karen dropped the remains of the digital device.

Seeing the last bits of tech touch the ground Naruto was the first to come out of the stupor as he asked the tall buxom woman. "Lady be honest your a member of Wonder Woman's clan or at least some kind of half bread right?"

Karen dusted her hands as she looked back at both Naruto and Artemis as she replied."First off my name is Karen Starr as in that." She said pointing to the Starrware sign. "And second I'm not an Amazon, pinky swear." She held up a said finger of her right hand as proof to the declaration.

However it seemed the childish gesture wasn't enough to convince ether of the two teens as the looked back at her sarcastically.

"Look buying out and controlling a major multinational company is more then a little straining so I've been crushing a lot of stress balls in the very few moments of spare time I have. But more importantly aren't the two of you some sort of monster hunters your letting the Man-Bat get away."

"Not exactly." Naruto said as he pulled his silver ring off with his teeth and flickered it over to Artemis like a coin.

Artemis managed to catch the ring with one hand as she quickly looked at it in the palm of her hand.

"This isn't the first time I thought I was fighting the wrong kind of monster or lost sight of it. That ring is enchanted to track and follow any creature that it touches…that isn't me."

Artemis held the ring up like a cellphone with low bars, and moved it in different angles until it started to glow bright blue as she aimed it in the same direction as Man-Bat took off to. "Ok but we still have no way of catching up to Man-Bat not unless you have a magic broom we could ride on."

Lightly kicking Vicki, to see if the woman was still unconscious Karen replied. "Come on it's the 21st century give the guy some credit I bet it's a magical vacuum cleaner right?"

Naruto quickly tossed the Ruyi Jingu Bang into the air as he placed his arms down and behind his back and snapped his fingers.

Artemis and Karen then watched in awe and slight amusement respectively as Naruto's discarded coat rose into the air and flew right into him and back onto his person.

"Is this the part where I'm supposed to be impressed?" Karen asked as she smiled arrogantly at the young mage.

Naruto just bit his thumb as he tried to draw out more blood for a spell. "No but this might be." He said after preforming a series of hand seals that ended with Naruto slamming his hands into the ground that spread out a mystic equation from the impact, that lead to a great gust of smoke popping out.

Taking a few steps back Naruto raised his hand again catching the Ruyi Jingu Bang as he used it to point at the mysterious smoke or at least what was hiding within it. "Artemis I'd like you to say hello to a friend."

Artemis looked at the smoke and saw the silhouette of some sort of creature that stood on four legs with a horn shaped appendage on its head as a pair of glowing red eyes stared right back at her. "Oh my…is it...it can't be…a unicorn?" she asked with a slight twinkle in her eye that the archer would swear was from the smoke.

As the dust cleared a long harbored and extreme secret that the young archer held in her heart fell in not only disappointment but down right stupefaction as Naruto's magical mount turned out to be…

"Ha ha ha by the red sun of Rao is that a f #*ing turtle!" Karen yelled out as she tried to hold her sides in from laughing even harder.

Artemis with her jaw still wide open in dismay slowly looked back at the giant turtle who apparently had a party hat strapped around his nose thus giving the illusion of a horn.

"He's not a turtle!" Naruto said as got close and wrapped his arms gently around the reptiles long neck. "He's a tortoise, and his names Max isn't that right buddy?" Naruto asked rhetorically.

Secret disappointment aside Artemis couldn't help but find it lovable the way the wrinkly old tortoise returned Naruto's affection by placing the bottom of his chin on the top of Naruto's head.

Naruto released his grip on Max as he got on top of the tortoise's shell as he was as big or bigger than an average Galapagos one. "Come on Artemis you're the navigator!"

Artemis shrugged as she got behind Naruto and she sat on Max. Placing her hands on Naruto's shoulders she couldn't help but ask. "Max is like a magical tortoise, right?"

Turning his head Naruto smiled and said. "Just trust me on this Max can get us almost anywhere in the world."

Looking back at Naruto she smiled back and nodded. "Ok I trust you."

"Great you both trust each other great team building exercise kids." Karen said sarcastically.

"You know don't take this the wrong way but your kind of a jerk." Naruto said with a raised brow.

Karen with her arms folded, tapped her fingers against her arms irritably. "Oh yeah I'm a jerk, tell me who was it that dumped a sack full of crap on my roof top causing Man-Bat to eat and roost here in the first place?"

Naruto puckered his lips as he tried not to look guilty but failed as he held his staff out and readjusted the tortoise's party hat. "Max get us down to the streets we have a monster to catch!"

The mighty tortoise slowly and I mean slowly turned it's self around as it faced the edge of the roof. And my dear readers when I'm writing the word slowly I truly mean it to the extreme as these simple movements took a full blown minute as Max stretched his neck down as he gazed down below and you can all guess what speed he was going on.

And while all this was happening Artemis couldn't be more embarrassed and Karen couldn't have laughed any louder.

But then it happened the moment that changed everyone's mood completely, Max blinked.

In a flash of blue light and lighting Max, Artemis and Naruto disappeared completely as nothing was left of the three.

Karen stopped laughing completely as she look around the roof top only to look down to the street to see that the two teens riding on the giant tortoise were down there. "….Oh you got to be kidding me!"

* * *

In a flash Artemis clanged onto Naruto as she let out a hyper ventilated breath and kept turning her head every which way. "How…were…what kind of turtle his he?!"

Naruto looked over his shoulder again and said. "I told you before he's not a turtle he's…"

"Fine tortoise whatever, what kind of magic is this?!" Artmies asked frantically cutting Naruto off.

Naruto let out a small chuckle as he looked forward. "Oh sure when Max does it it's magic but when those two guys from Central City are moving it's called having superpowers."

"Central City, two guys with superpowers…wait a second are you telling me…."

"That humans aren't the only ones who can be living conduits of the speedforce?" Naruto laughed. "Now which way are we heading now?"

Artemis quickly snapped out of her stupor as she placed the silver ring on her finger and held up her hand until she found their heading. "S…..straight ahead."

"You heard her let's get going, Max!" Naruto yelled out as he gently tapped his foot alongside the semi giant reptile's shell and pointed the Ruyi Jingu Bang in the direction Artemis pointed out.

"How long are you going to be using that thing?" Artemis asked referring to the mystical relic.

And just as Max slowly lifted a foot off the ground and just as slowly took a step forward Naruto had just enough time to reply. "Well I usually stow it in the weapons vault I keep in my stomach…but it takes me a while to swallow things as big this."

The archer riding shotgun on the tortoise couldn't help but smile slyly as she leaned forward whispering. "You know just for the record I don't have a problem swallowing anything big."

Naruto's face turned into a bright shade of scarlet, even more so then when his face was smacked by Karen's rock hard chest. "Wait what?!" the mystic asked just as Max's foot touched the ground propelling forward in more than average super speed.

Gone and our of sight the flash of blue light from their exit didn't go unnoticed by the few pedestrians on the street but more specifically it didn't escape the eye of an older grey haired, slightly bald gentleman dressed as a chauffeur sitting behind the wheel of a black Gothic like luxury car parked right in front of Wayne International Plaza.

The moment the gentleman saw the two teenagers ridding on the giant tortoise had disappeared, he raised a curios brow and calmly pulled out a black smart phone. "Call Master Bruce." He commanded his eyes never leaving the street.

* * *

 **Wayne International Plaza**

"So it was like this when you got here?" A man with jet black hair wearing a suit just as dark, in his early thirty's asked the two people who stood behind him dressed in security guard uniforms.

"It's just like we said on the phone, ." one of the security guards said an older white haired man as he adjusted his uniform cap. " The second the secondary security measures alerted us about the intruders we came up here as soon as we could.

"But the second we got to the access door someone had tampered with the electronic lock just like the roof's motion detectors." The other guard a young woman with brown hair finished as she pointed backwards to said door that had been rammed open.

Bruce Wayne a man who was known in the media as the Prince of Gotham didn't have on the charming smile that his staff and everyone else in the daytime were use to seeing on the playboy, but a neutral expression that he reserved for his other night time exploits as he looked down to the building across the street seeing a completely different neon sign lite up then before he entered his own building.

Bruce filed to look into whatever Starrware Industries was for latter in his memory palace as he turned his attention towards the lone sniper rifle still mounted on his roof top along with the strange journal he found close to the sniper's nest.

"Mr…Mr Wayne?" the slightly brooding billionaire closed the journal and looked over towards the female security guard who was trying to get his attention. "Do you want us to alert the authorities about this?"

"Yes of course…." Bruce paused as he looked at his phone seeing that Alfred was trying to call him. "…But make sure you contact Lucius Fox first I want him to analysis how anyone disabled the motion detectors in the first place and to see if he can lift any finger prints off that weapon and those drink cups our unwanted guests left behind first before anyone from the GCPD understood?"

Both guards looked at each other before looking back at their boss. "I'd like to know who was planning to use my building as a nest for target practice tonight." Wayne stated rather firmly it was more then enough to get both guards to take the request without question.

"No problem Mr. Wayne I'll contact Mr. Fox right now." The older security guard said as he pulled out his corporate Wayne Tech phone.

"Yes Alfred what is it?" Bruce asked one of the oldest if not first person he had on his staff.

"Sir I thought it might interest you to know I saw something rather unusual only a few minutes ago." The English gentleman said over the line.

"Alfred, this is Gotham City you're going to have to be a little more specific on what you mean by unusual."

* * *

"Naruto, can we stop for a second?!" Artemis asked rather loudly as Max finished taking another step.

"Ah sure I think I know where we're heading anyway. We're close to Gotham U Man-Bat must have double backed here."

Taking a few deep breathes Artemis looked at the glowing ring on her finger as she decided to use this opportunity to prepare for whatever was coming next. "Naruto if Man-Bat isn't a werewolf err sorry werebat then are we dealing with a giant mutated flying rodent?"

"Honestly that's probably that best case."

That didn't put Artemis mind at ease. "Ok then are you going to tell me what's worst case then?"

Naruto took a deep breath himself as if he were telling Artemis to brace herself for his next statement. "We might have some type of vampire on our hands."

Artemis took the new rather well not showing any fear what so ever. "Oh then that shouldn't be a problem you've fought vampires before right ? All we need is some holly water and wooden stacks"

Reaching for the ammo she had strapped to her belt she pulled out a round of wooden bolts form her crossbows. "I already have the stake part covered so I'm ready to channel my inner Buffy Summers."

"Well I hate to tell you this but the whole stake to the heart thing is just Hollywood garbage again it's not going to work." Naruto shrugged. "And more importantly vamps aren't like werecreatures their...their just really dangerous if worse comes to worse and I can't cure Man-Bat the only way I can truly stop it is to cut its head off."

"…I'm sorry what?"

Gripping the Ruyi Jingu Bang tightly Naruto kept his focus aimed forward. "Besides subduing vamps with ether holy anointing oil, holy water or pelting them with phoenix dactylifera. The only way to stop them is by separating their brains from their hearts just like Ozzy Osbourne did back in the eighties when he used to hunt vampires…of course we don't necessarily have to bite it off like he did."

"What a second…Ozzy Osbourne use to hunt vampires?"

Having enough of their little break Naruto signaled Max to keep moving. "Well actually Tony Iommi was the actual hunter, why do you think they called themselves Black Sabbath in the first place?"

* * *

 **Gotham U**

Just outside the science research building on a grass lawn stood a man with a black bowl cut hairdo wearing a white lab coat over a blue sweater this man in his mid-forties looked to the skis as a machine on the ground right next to him with a spinning antenna dish beeped and whistled as it was letting out a super high frequency signal no human would be able to hear.

"Any second now." The man said as he looked at his watch as he heard a familiar high pitch scream.

Man-Bat who had recovered his sensitive sight flew down towards the man in a lab coat flapping his wings as he landed right next to the man's machine.

Man-Bat let out another cry as it used it's wing's thumb to touch the side of the machine in curiosity.

The man in the lab coat wasn't at all surprised by the monster before him if anything he looked down at the creature with a look of deep pity. "For what it's worth I'm sorry it's have to come to this…" he slowly pulled out a pistol from his coat pocket and aimed it right for the creature head. "…good bye Kirk."

But the man's final farewell never came to pass as the Ruyi Jingu Bang flew out of nowhere and smacked the pistol right out of the man's hand.

"Son of a Bitch!" the bowl cut man screamed as he clutched his hand in agony.

The man's yelling was more than enough to get Man-Bat's attention as the monster was no longer interested in the machine as it spread it's wings out letting out a roar.

"No wait a minute Kirk calm down!" the man in the lab coat yelled as he tried to reason with Man-Bat. "It's me your friend Achilles, remember?"

Man-Bat's only reply was using it's wing to swat the man named Achilles away from itself.

A second latter Naruto and Artemis made their way over towards where Achilles' machine and the Ruyi Jingu Bang were. As Naruto picked up the mystic staff and aimed it like a javelin just as Artemis pulled out her crossbows.

"You have the shot?" Naruto asked as Man-Bat was flying further and further away.

"Yeah these bolts might not take him down but their sure as hell get his attention."

But just as the teens were ready to attack Achilles ran towards them waving his hands in the air. "Wait a minute please you can't do that!"

Naruto sighed as he saw the older man heading towards them. "Here we go again." He whispered before speaking up towards the man. "Listen up Mr. Scientist guy I'm going to tell you the same thing I tell every other sciencey person who thinks that by examining a dead vampire's going to help them find the key towards eternal youth or immortality..."

"What are you talking about?" the man demanded as he waved his hands in anger and frustration.

"That's what you were planing to do right?" Naruto asked as in his experience the only two type of people who actively interacted with vampires were either lonely bland teenagers or research scientists...some times they were both. "You were going to try and kill that vampire with that gun right?"

"Gun?" Achilles questioned as he picked up said weapon. "Do you mean this tranquilizer gun." he stated as the tool was painted black like a pistol.

"Oh." Naruto scratched the back of his head slightly embarrassed. "Sorry I thought I was saving your life you see if you shot a vampire with a gun all it does is piss them off it's like kicking them in the balls."

"There you go again with that vampire nonsense. That poor creature isn't a movie monster he was...is a man, by the name of Kirk Langstrom who has been affected by curse of his own creation."

Naruto stood silent for his moment as he nodded his head. "I see you he tried his hand in sorcery and ended up cursing himself with an animal spirit transmogra...trhansmogra..."

Achilles let out a frustrated sigh as Artemis asked Naruto with slight humor in her voice. "Are you trying to say transmogrification?"

Without turning around to address her Naruto thanked her. "Yes thank you Artemis did your friend Kirk curse himself with a transmogrification ritual."

"NO! it was an experiment a science experiment that went wrong alright!"

Artemis stepped forward and stood next to Naruto. "Why don't you start at the beginning Dr..."

"It's Professor actually." The man stated as he looked behind himself and into the sky to see his fallen friend had long since fled again. "Professor Achilles Milo."


	8. Lessons in Classroom Super Science

**August 7, 21:30 EDT Gotham U**

"So you're saying the reason why Dr. Langstrom turned himself into a half man half bat creature was because he wanted to get rid of his cancer?"

Inside the science building but more specifically in one of Gotham U's many private research labs Professor Milo rummaged behind his desk while Naruto and Artemis stood at the other end, as the former having asked the opening question as he scratched his head in confusion.

"I assure you Kirk had no attention of becoming some sort of hybrid." Prof Milo said as he pulled out a series of folders from the desk. The two teens saw some of the papers spilling out each one detailing a DNA strain along with footnotes explaining each piece of genomic data.

Milo eventually found what he was looking for in the form of a flash drive which he placed in his computer. He then activated a sequence for a screen to pull down over the white board behind him as he showed what was on the files via projection.

"You see around a few decades or so ago there was a visiting German professor who taught in this very university for a semester or two named Dr. Karl Hellfern." Milo's first slide was a picture of Dr. Helfern's faculty photo which showed him as a middle-aged man with balding hair on top but with black hair on the sides with a matching beard. But what made the old doctor stand out was his taste in fashion as he was dressed in a fancy black suit with a white bowtie and a monocle resting on his left eye.

"Are you sure this guy was teaching here in 90's and not the 19th century?" Artemis asked. "He looks like Colonel Klink from Hogan's heroes."

Milo looked slightly annoyed but progressed with his impromptu lecture just the same. "Yes well Dr. Helfern's taste in clothing aside. He left behind countless research papers when he mysteriously disappeared before the end of his second semester."

"Knowing Gotham city he probably died from a mugging and had his body thrown in the river." Artemis snarked.

"Or maybe a ghost ate him." Naruto said as he folded his arms and nodded. "Trust me it's been known to happen."

"Y…yes well whatever the case for his disappearance it is the legacy he left behind in his work on genetic modification that will continue to go on." Milo showed another image this time it was a DNA sequence just like the ones on the papers splattered around the desk, but what made this projection slide different was the chemical structure formula right next to it.

"You see it might have been Dr. Hellfern who created the map so to speak but Kirk and I where the ones who plotted the correct course. With Kirk's expertise as a Zoologist and my own brilliance as both a world renowned chemical and genetic engineer we were able to find the correct genetic markers in the animal kingdom that could very well cure any disease known to mankind!" Milo ended his statement by raising his fist into the air and looking up at the ceiling titles as if he were asking God himself to throw another challenge at him.

Artemis couldn't raise her eyebrow any higher at Milo's excitement as she looked over to Naruto for a rebuttal but looked at the mystic even more strangely as he was looking at the projection of the chemical formula and DNA strained rather intensely as in his eyes were wide open and he wasn't even blinking. The archer then turned her attention back to the professor. "Look professor I'm not going to pretend I really understand most of this because I'm going on a sophomore education over her…"

Artemis paused as looked back at Naruto who only turned his eyes balls in her direction. "I have a G.E.D that I got from taking night classes at an upstate junior college."

Looking back at Milo Artemis dragged out the word. "Riggggght." As she couldn't stop watching Naruto who was watching the screen so intensely, but she found the strength to do so anyway. "The point I'm trying to make is can you explain to us how injecting yourself with bat DNA could actually cure you of anything?"

"Well I don't suppose I should be all that surprised you are after all children." Milo said rather arrogantly as went to another slide, this one was a picture of a bat that was spread open winged with a caption that under. "Desmodus rotundus or in layman's terms the common vampire bat." Milo used a laser pointer to highlight the pointy eared little creature.

"Most every species of bat have natural reservoirs for a large number of different zoonotic pathogens. But despite having an assortment of diseases the rival the CDC collection the bats themselves have an immune system that is greatly superior then our own." Milo paused his lecture seeing that both teenagers more or less understood before going on.

"Now you see what makes the common vampire bat more special than its cousin is due to the fact that its saliva has a protein that acts as a powerful anticoagulant that allows the bat to feed on its victim's blood with little to no chance of the prey's wounds closing up."

"Anticoagulant, so what you guys were trying to create some sort of super drug that could treat blood clots?" Artemis asked.

Milo looked slightly amused. "That's a rather astute assumption for a sophomore. Tell me do you know someone who developed clots in their body one time or another?"

Artemis narrowed her eyes as she folded her arms. "Is that really important right now?" she asked defensively.

"No I suppose. But formula wasn't meant to treat mere blood clots alone but help and cure patients with lymphoma, patients like Kirk Langstrom."

With a final click Milo showed the last page of his slide show which was a diagram of a human highlighted around the neck area. "Originally our combined efforts were intended to boast the immune system and eat away at the cancer cells located in the lymphatic system."

Shutting the projector off and walking over to a clear cabinet, pulling out a test tube from the rack. "But Kirk, he was impatient and was rash using an unfinished version which mutated his cellular structure into the creature you faced tonight."

"Wow I don't know if it's ironic or some kind of twisted fate." Naruto said sadly.

"What is?" Artemis asked.

"That Dr. Langstrom got the same disease that he spent all this time on to find a cure for."

At that moment Milo held a vile in his hand while giving Naruto a deadpan expression. "It's not ironic Kirk specifically tried finding a cure for his particular strain of illness. That's why this treatment can only fix blood base cancers."

"Oh…yeah that'd be one good motivator."

"Still." Artemis said as she leaned back on one of the lab's counters as she folded her arms. "I can't help but think the FDA isn't going to ok a drug or serum that turns cancer patients into a giant bat monster if they don't get the dosage right."

Professor Milo actual turned and spat angrily into a sink. "The FDA, government regulations what would any of those Washington bureaucrats know about the advancements of mankind? They keep pumping federal funding to tech companies like Kord, Luthor, and Magnus in hopes that the flashiest new power armors instead of improving our own bodies…."

Naruto and Artemis looked back at each other before they gave Milo a skeptical look but decided to keep quiet and let the man rant himself until he tuckered out.

"…think of it a solider with the eyes of a falcon the strength of a silver back gorilla and the architectural intellect of a beaver!" Milo stopped is mild tantrum as he saw the looks the two not quite heroes were giving him.

"….Yes I can see how some people might not want the twenty foot wing span added to their bodies." Milo coughed slightly into a fist and readjusted the collar of his lab coat a bit. "But just for the record Kirk's transformation wasn't due to the formula's dosage but rather from the strength from the catalyst.

"The catalyst?" Naruto asked tilting his head to the side.

"Yes." Milo placed the vile he was holding onto a table as he bent down and placed a black and silver trim box on the same counter space.

He then began entering a sequence of codes on the keypad as he explained more clearly. "You see the problem with the formula we created was that for the longest time it would burn up too quickly from a subject's metabolism or white blood cells to take effect once entered into the blood stream. So we needed a catalyst a form of radiation that would permanently mutate the formula into the subject's cellular structure. There by enabling the body to kill the cancerous cells itself."

"Radiation…." That got both Naruto and Artemis' attention real strong. "….from which element?"

"Plutonium!" Naruto shouted as if he was answering a trivia question. "I bet it was plutonium."

"You know there are other radioactive elements besides plutonium." Artemis told Naruto dryly. "I'm going to say carbon-14."

"Well I'm sticking with plutonium." Naruto said stubbornly. "You know unless he put the medicine in the microwave and that radiated it….no I'm sticking with plutonium."

"Well you heard the kid with magical powers Prof." Artemis pointed a finger at Milo's metal case. "He's going on plutonium, and I'm sticking with carbon-14." She then leaned in forwards and smiled in mockery. "Final answer."

Milo just chuckled as he opened the case and the whole dark room still dim from the slides was illuminated in a ghastly green glow. "Sorry children buy your both wrong."

"Is it powered by Marcel Wallace' soul?" Naruto asked trying to shield his eyes.

Milo looked up at Naruto and just stared at him slightly irked. "No my sharply dressed little friend. This is no dark magic but a power that came from beyond the stars."

As Milo took the element out and held it in his hands causing the teens to gasp.

"Oh my god…." Naruto whispered. "It is plutonium! Naruto shouted accusingly at the professor.

"He said it was from beyond the stars, Naruto." Artemis stated flatly.

"…..There can be plutonium from space."

Finally having enough Milo let out an exhausted sigh. "It's kryptonite alright, kryptonite. I was trying to be slightly dramatic and build up to it but you ruined it. But he's right there's a large possibility that an element like plutonium can be found in….oh now you got me doing it!"

* * *

"This will hurt only for a second."

On the main quad of the college campus Max the speedster tortoise was replenishing his strength the only way those who were living conduits to the Speed Force could, by consuming as much food as fast as it could…..which at his normal pace wasn't fast at all.

But as the speedy reptile was chopping down on a flower from the garden bed a man dressed in a dark gray ballistic woven suit, sexy black trunks, gloves boots and a black cape kneed besides Max as he finished taking a blood sample from the tortoise.

Getting up the man's cape fluttered a bit reveling a symbol of a bat spread over the chest as well as a yellow utility belt that he pulled out a hand held devise which he placed the small blood sample on.

The man then placed his free fingers on the side of his head which was covered in a black cowl with pointy ear like accessories mounted onto the head piece. "Alfred I'm sending you the blood sample now."

All the way across town heading in the opposite direction of Gotham U was the same chauffeur driver who witnessed the speedy tortoise along with the two teenagers was driving the vintage car as he used the buttons on the steering wheel to navigate the car's computer system.

"I have it now Master Bruce." Alfred waited until he came at a stop light before he had the computer scan the blood sample for identifying genetic markers. Until then the English gentleman decided to pass the time with a little small talk. "I take it that the new prototype has gotten you in Gotham University in one piece, sir?"

"It has for now Lucius hasn't installed any of the offensive capabilities yet let alone the paint job, but all the surveillance functions are good to go."

A few second later Alfred was finally able to read off the match results. "Well back to the investigation at hand It seems you were right, sir. It appears that our leathery friend is indeed a speedster…..although this test seems rather redundant given that tortoises don't normally travel at the same speed as one of the fastest men alive."

Back on the other end the masked Bruce Wayne replied. "There was no doubt that this tortoise has the power of the Speed Force coursing though it's veins I was able to track him down in the first place by following the ion trail it left in its wake. But what I want to know is which speedster in the Justice League database does this tortoise have the same altered genetic structure."

The light turned green on Alfred as he was able to click and compare the blood sample. "Sir, it appears as though Mr. Jay Garrick of the Justice Society of America and the tortoise have the same chemical charge in their systems."

Looking back down at the reptile in question Bruce saw it paid him no mind as it was still enjoying its late night meal. "I remember years ago when I met the original Flash he told be the story of how he obtained his speed. He mentioned that the chemical company he was working for Mercury Labs had a tortoise as a mascot that they named, Max."

As if on que Max turned his long neck and looked back at Bruce as he still munched on the flowers in his mouth before turning his head back.

Letting out one of his patented Hmmm's as he began walking towards one of the campus' buildings. "Based on the descriptions you gave me on the two teenagers I have a very sneaking suspicion that the boy wearing a suit might be Naruto."

Alfred stayed silent for a moment before he responded back. "Well I was hoping to tell you this rather later Master Bruce but Lucius was able to identify one of the set of finger prints left behind on the roof top."

Pulling out a grappling gun from his utility belt Bruce fired a line onto the side of the building. "And?"

"I'm afraid they do belong to young Naruto but I'm afraid that's not all. When Lucius sent us the finger prints they were automatically crossed referenced with a person of interest at a large number of open and closed crime scenes that were and I quote from some of the lead investigators something out of the _Twilight Zone_ and or the _Doctor Mystic Mystery Hour_."

With a snag of the line indicating that the hook was sunk in Bruce pressed the reeling button and shot into the air. "I knew that this was bound to happen. Naruto isn't the type of kid to stay on the sidelines forever. If it wasn't for the fact that he hates me I would have invited him to join the Team by now."

"Aren't you being rather dramatic I'm sure Naruto doesn't hate."

As Bruce detached his grapple and pried opened the window of the building he ended the call by saying. "Alfred he said it to my face five years ago I'm not guessing teenage hormones and attitude did anything to lessen that disgruntlement.

* * *

"Wait so you're telling me that kryptonite is radioactive?" Naruto asked as he looked back at the glowing sliver in Milo's hands.

"Yes but I assure you we have nothing to worry about." Milo placed the sample piece back into the case and closed it. "The effects of raw kryptonite on humans are a hundred times slower then what I can only estimate on Kryptonians themselves."

"Where did you manage to even find kryptonite anyway?" Artemis asked. "Isn't just a pound of that stuff worth more than a college teacher's yearly salary?"

Milo looked nervous for just a second before he but back on a knowing smile. "Well that's what research grants are for I err I mean we were lucky enough to earn two from some very interested outside parties hoping our research would be beneficial towards them. Which is why I asked you two to follow me back to the lab tonight."

"I thought it was so we could learn more about Dr. Langstrom in order to help him?" Artemis narrowed her eyes a bit trying to get a read on Milo's true attentions.

"It is but also to ask for your discretion on what happens next." Taking the vile he pulled out from before Milo loaded it into a medical injection gun.

"What's that for?"

Milo smiled slyly as he held the gun out and aimed it right at Artemis. For about a few second he said nothing but kept the device held up casing both Naruto and Artemis to tense up. Only to look confused as Milo let his hand go slightly limp and rotating the gun around so it was upside down with the syringe pointed towards him and the handle at the archer.

"Since you broke my trank gun I'm afraid all I can offer you is this."

Milo shook his hand signaling for Artemis to take the tool which she quickly did. "This jet injector contains a sedative that should be powerful enough for you to knock Kirk out safely. After that I'd much appreciate it if you brought his unconscious body back here so I can study him and hopefully reverse his current condition."

"I've seen something like this before in movies." Artemis said lifting jet injector up a bit. "They can only be used in close quarters, right?"

"Yes, extremely close." Milo corrected. "You'll have to inject him right at skin contact for it to work."

Artemis took the jet injector from Milo and placed it in one of her shoulder holsters. "So I'm going to take a wild guess that you're not coming with us."

Milo held up his hands and started to move them in a no gesture while smiling. "As much as I care about Kirk I'm afraid I'd only hamper in his rescue out in the field. But I'm sure two well trained vigilantes like yourselves are up for the task"

"I have a question." Naruto said as he raised a hand. "When we bring Doc Langstrom back here where are you going to keep him until he's turned back into regular person again?"

"Of course there's a more surgical lab right below us that I've already prepared with a few adjustments I'm sure Kirk will be comfortable until he's back to his old self." The gleam in the professor's eye didn't go unnoticed.

"Ok but how are we going to find Dr. Langstrom now?" Artemis looked at Naruto as she held up the tracking ring. "I've been waving my hand around this whole time but I don't think I can get a signal."

Naruto walked over to Artemis and gently held her hand. Twisting the ring slightly to the right Artemis watched as a glyph appeared on the silver band glowing in the same blue as when it was near a target. And then suddenly like magic the glyph projected a beam of light that materialized into a transparent 2D map.

"See right there on the map that blinking red dot that's where he is and that green arrow's were you are…..get it green arrow?"

"…..Yeah I got."

"It's because you're like a Green Arrow and the…"

"Yes Naruto I get the joke!...you can let go of my hand now."

Naruto immediately released his grip as Artemis looked back at him slyly. "Come on Magic Man we got a Man-Bat to capture."

Artemis pulled out one of her crossbows, dashed to the nearest open window, and spun jumped out while firing a line into the night.

Milo looked rather looked rather perplexed as he looked from the gapping window to Naruto who just smirked. "Your friend knew there was a door right there, right?" he said somewhat sarcastically as he pointed to said door.

"Yeah but you know us young people, Prof." Naruto casually walked over to the same open window. "We love to make a dramatic exit." And with a snap of his fingers Naruto disappeared in a puff of smoke.

Milo fixed his coat again as he walked over to the window and closed it. "Hopefully there won't be any more surprises tonight."

"I wouldn't count on it, Milo." A mysterious voice spoke followed by a pointy eared shadow that casted over the professor.

A cold bead of sweat ran down Milo's spin as he turned around with all the fear in the world plastered on his face. "Ba….Ba…Batman!?"

* * *

Running back on the court yard Artemis kept alternating from looking at the ring map and the area ahead over her as to not run into anything. "It doesn't look like Dr. Langstrom 's too far from here. I think he's just circling around the business district again."

Naruto didn't respond right away as he was too busy drawing something on his left palm with a black tip pen. "Ah huh."

Artemis gave Naruto a side glance wanting to know what was occupying his attention rather than their current target. "What are you doing?" she asked bluntly.

"I'm trying to remember what the formula that changed Dr. Langstrom into Man-Bat looked like so I can turn him back into human." Naruto said as he tapped the end of the pen at the side of his head trying to remember the last bits. "Err but if I don't get this sealing sequence right I might make him huge or turn him into a reproduction Aeron chair by Herman Miller."

Artemis was not a loss for words mostly because she couldn't help but sprout out nonsense. "How….why…what?"

Naruto held up his palm showing her his hand doodle. "If I place the Man-Bat chemical formula around my standard shapeshifting suppression sealing array I should be able to turn Dr. Langstrom back to normal."

"Or you might accidently turn him into a coffee table no I totally get it." There was a hint of sarcasm in Artemis' tone.

"Oh yeah like that's so hard to believe." Naruto retorted just as sarcastically. "What about a chemical that turns people into bat hybrids huh? You just slap the word science in there and all of a sudden it makes sense that mixing a bunch of nonsense together gets you an army of Man-Bats go out and not blood poising."

Artemis could see Max up ahead taking it as a que to slow down but still ask Naruto. "It sounds like you think that Dr. Langstrom's transformation wasn't an accident."

Naruto put his pen away and started to air dry his hand. "Maybe it was I can't really saw that part for sure but you can't tell me that Milo guy didn't give off a Mad Scientist vibe."

"Well it depends on the context." Artemis shrugged. "I mean he was pretty mad about FCC regulations sure but I don't think he's mad crazy."

"Alright but you have to admit that something about him is not right. I mean come on did you see his haircut almost every kid who's gotten a bowl cut always grow up to be an antagonist or at least a creep."

"Antagonist?" Artemis asked curiously as it was a rather odd terminology.

"It's the politically correct term to refer to some who is a quote un quote bad guy." Naruto said giving finger quotation marks. "But yeah Damien Thorn from the Omen bowl cut and an antagonist, Mandark from Dexter's laboratory bowl cut and an antagonist, and Curly from Hey Arnold was an antagonist in that one episode he framed Eugene for pulling the school's fire alarm is that enough proof for you."

"All that proves is that you watch too many cartoons." Artemis replied with dry sass. "But I'm willing to admit that I think Professor Milo's not telling us everything. But we should first concentrate on catching up with Dr. Langstrom for now. If you're spell works we can ask Langstrom himself on what's really going on"

"Yeah except we have no way to catching up to him now." Naruto shrugged as he walked over towards Max.

"What are you talking about we got Max." Artemis pointed out as she too came over towards the speedy tortoise. "What is he out of gas or something?"

"In a way ,yeah." Naruto grabbed the sides of Max's head and panned it towards the archer, showing that the tortoise was munching on a flower as it slowly slurped up a steam like a strand of spaghetti. "He might move at the speed of light…sound..? but he eats like a regular tortoise."

True to his words Max just looked at Artemis with plan dull expression before he let out a tiny burb, wiggled out of Nartuo's grip and slowly began to pick at the flora in the grove.

Artemis began to lose her grip as she threw her hands up in the air. "Well can't you summon someone or something else for us to ride on?"

Naruto shook his head. "I can't anything else is either unavailable at this time or not fast enough." But by shaking his head Naruto's gaze was locked onto something in the distance.

"Well Dr. Langstrom's in the business district we can probably catch up to by navigating through grappling hooks and free running it." Artemis placed her hand on her chin as she began to tap her finger in deep thought.

"Artemis?"

The archer ignored the mystic out of contemplation rather than rudeness. "But we'd have to ride the bus just to get to the business district from the campus…"

"Artemis?!"

Again Naruto's outcry fell onto deaf ears as Artemis began to pace a bit. "Damn it but the busses don't run this late." Placing her hand over her face in embarrassment Artemis grunted out. "I think we're going to have to call a car service or something to come pick us up."

" **ARTEMIS!"** Just like with Max Naruto grabbed the sides of Artemis' face with his palms and smooshed her cheeks until the archer's lips popped out a bit as he turned her head over towards the direction he was looking at before.

Grabbing onto Naruto's arms to pull him off of her face Artemis looked at said object and then looked back at Naruto in shock and disbelieve. "No."

"Oh come you said it yourself we need a ride like right now." Naruto said defending his silent suggestion.

"Do you know how much trouble we'll be in when and I mean when _he_ finds out that we stole that thing? Artemis asked with gusto.

Naruto who couldn't stop smiling at the prospect held up his fingers as he began to count off. "Ok one it's not stealing its borrowing, and number two do you honestly think that _he_ and I'm assuming we're both talking about the same he…" Naruto paled his fists to the sides of his head as he wiggled his index fingers back and forth. "…would even file a police report if we just borrow it and bring it right back."

"Forget the cops or even him for just a sec; do you know what my parents would do to me if they find out that we stole that thing?" Artemis asked the question rhetorically but a part of her brain answered for her anyway. " _Mom would at least try to ground me until college and dad….dad would probably take me out for some ice cream."_

"We don't even know if it's _his_!" Naruto said as he actually started walking over towards the mysterious item. "Look it's not even black everyone know that he paints all of his stuff black. For all we know this could be some college student's mid-term project or something."

Artemis walked next to Naruto as she too had a hard time trying to pry her wanting eyes off the object. "Oh yeah I'm pretty sure Gotham U has a class in building nucleated powered battle tanks."

Naruto looked away from the object to Artemis and then back on the object. "Actually it looks more like an art deco futuristic hot rod."

As Naruto walked closer to what was now identified as a vehicle Artemis trailed right behind him. "Art deco….really?"

"Ok maybe it's more Retro Futurism."

Naruto paused as he could see Artemis' reflection off the vehicle's windshield as he could tell that she wasn't debating the machine's design but rather how he knew what to call it. "What, I took an art appreciation class so I could you know appreciate art….And steal symbols to use in my seal designs but if you're still hung up on the moral dilemma on borrowing this thing I got two words for you, probable cause."

Naruto pointed at the windshield as he walked around towards the driver's side door. Getting closer Artemis could see that he had been pointing at was the journal of Alan Wayne sitting right on the dash board.

"Oh great so it isn't just some coincidence that he's here. He's probably been tracking us since we were at Wayne Plaza!" Artemis said in despair but kept walking over towards Naruto as she watched him take of his right black dress shoe and sock. "What are you doing now?"

"Ok well for starters I'm still saying that this is someone's college project or thesis or whatever. And second I may not know literally anything about technology past a T.V. set but I do know how to pick a lock."

Naruto then pricked his pinky toe as he placed it on the door's window, as the blood spread out as thinly as possible before it took on the shape of a circle divided in equal parts like a pie chart with each section holding a different glyph.

The mystic then started to move his fingers around in different hand seals as the blood symbol on the glass started spin around along with him after a minute or two the circle stopped spinning as the sigil on top of the chart started to glow orange right as the vehicle's door opened automatically.

"Got it!" Naruto shouted triumphantly as he hopped on one foot and tried to redress the other as he made his way over towards the passenger side.

"So what you keep some sort of hacking seal on your toe that lets you open doors?"

"…Yeah you just saw me do it…."

Artemis let out an annoyed grunt as she ran her hand down her face. "I was being sarcas….ah never mind so I'm guessing you want me to be the one who drives this thing?"

"Well I would except I don't have a license and I don't know how to drive." Naruto said as he got into the vehicle.

"Of course you don't." Artemis replied back as she got behind the wheel. Looking around the dashboard for the controls she warped her fingers around the vehicle's twin joystick controllers. "But what makes you think I know how to drive something like this?"

" _Because Jade told me that the first time either of you drove it was in an assault vehicle like this one._ " Naruto placed on a straight face as he shook the true reason out of his head as he slid his hand on Artemis' shoulder and looked deep in her eyes. "Because I believe in you and….ah the power of friendship and stay golden Pony Boy…"

Artemis looked back at Naruto just as intensely before she brook out in a small laugh as she turned on the vehicle's ignition switch. "Ok Johnny, let's go catch us a mutated scientist.

* * *

Flee, fly, fast, forward, downward, dive, dip, dodge, evade, expand, explore, elevate, cry, circulate, capture, CRASH, bevel, balance, breach, bob, angulate, appear, absinthe, Abba.

Whatever trace amounts of sentient thoughts were running through Man-Bat's mind as he tried to run away as quickly as possible could only be identified as one word phrases. The fact that they were all forming together in two sets of unity just showed how impressive the now submissive human part of the artificially created chimera was.

But alas the creature was still a slave towards its animalistic instincts which was telling it to fly further and further away from the university as it took some sort of comfort in sailing beside the tall buildings that made up Gotham's Business District.

That is until Man-bat's latest sonic sweep picked up multiple bogeys heading right towards him. But with a quick dive the man made monster evaded just in time to miss several flares lighting up right on its face.

"Damn it we almost had him."

Panning all the way down to street level Naruto pounded his fist angrily on the dashboard of vehicle he and Artemis were using in hot pursuit of the Man-Bat.

With the silver tracking ring wedged right into the flaps of the central ac fan Artemis was able to use the magical G.P.S. to tail the flying creature as it was flying parallel to the roads, while Naruto tried his luck in pressing almost ever button he could find on the dash.

"Naruto knock it off with the flares already." Artemis demeaned as she quickly shifted into another lane thanking whatever all mighty being that might be looking down at them tonight as so far the streets had very few traffic. Unfortunately that couldn't be said for the sidewalks as the bright flares caught the attention of onlookers who pointed right at Man-Bat in all his glory wings and claws and all.

"We don't want anybody to call the cops or else you're going to be curing Dr. Langston's bleeding corpse from a sniper round."

Leaning forward to get a better look himself Naruto replied. "I don't think that'll be a problem his echolocation's keeps altering him of danger even before it gets to him, He's like Radar O'Reilly."

Naruto stopped and saw the very dry look Artemis' was giving him at that moment. "What?"

"Why can't you just use normal references and say his spider-sense is tingling?"

Now it was Naruto's turn to look at his partner in disarray. "What are you talking about He's a bat not a spider!"

Artemis focused back on the road and on the ring as she turned at an intersection and started to head east. "You know normally I'd call you out on that but I think the fact that I'm driving the Batmoblie in the heart of Gotham City easily over shadow's your inherit absurdity."

"…Driving the alleged Batmobile. There's still no proof that we stole that jerk's car."

"Jerk, what do you have some personal grudge against Batman? And I thought you said we were borrowing it?"

Naruto chose not to say anything at that point he just huffed and bloated his cheeks like a pouting child a bit as another button caught his eye. "I wonder what this one does?"

"Wait, Naruto stop that might be…."But Artemis caution fell on deaf ears since Naruto had just pressed it.

" **Reconnaissance drone online** " a female robotic voice spoke throughout the alleged Batmobile's sound system speakers just as the dashboard on Naruto's side shined out a blue light that took the form of a flat transparent video screen.

From the screen Naruto watched as it went from black to the perspective of the top of the vehicle if you were to look straight ahead. Next a black remote control that looked like it belonged to a video game system came out of the glove box.

Naruto took no hesitation in grabbing the controller as he started to mash the buttons around. "See I told you a college student made this car. I seriously doubt Batman would be cool enough to install a Sega Genesis into the Batmobile."

"Sega Genesis?" Artemis questioned with bravado. "Ok what year do you think this is in that anyone would install a Sega Genesis into anything?"

"I'm sorry have you never heard of Earthworm Jim?" Naruto looked back at the virtual screen not seeing Artemis' reaction face as the video feed started to show the video begin to tilt upwards and move forward Naruto could see from the windshield that a small black aerial drone in the shape of a large batarang shot out into the sky in which the video feed matched to perspective.

"Ok I'm now like ninety-nine percent sure that we're in an unpainted Batmobile." Naruto nodded as he started to control the drone around in the sky.

"Not that I knew that before." Naruto at that time spoke in a clear loud and articulate tone as his eyes darted around the car.

"Naruto pay attention!" Artemis shouted as she tried not to look away from her line of sight but pointed over towards Naruto's video screen. "Man-Bat dead ahead!"

Naruto looked back on the feed to see that the drone was trailing just a few feet away from the monster. "Ok so which button shoots out the net?" while fiddling around with the other control buttons the mystic pressed a button on the side that made the car speak again.

" **Audio broadcast online."**

A second later the now semi conformed Batmobile was filled with the sounds of a high pitched screeching.

"Oh crap what the hell!" Artemis shouted as her left eye started to twitch rapidly.

"It's his echolocation!" Naruto placed his hands on his ears to try to block off the sound, unfortunately Artemis could use the same move as she needed both hands on the wheel err driving controls. "On a normal sized bat it just sounds like a bunch of squeaking and chirping but with him it's like if the sounds of nails on a chalk board had a baby with the singing of a yodeler!"

"Isn't there some way we can jam his echolocation?" Artemis asked as she took a sharp swivel to evade another car.

"Well sometimes when two bats are after the same food like a moth or something. The bat that's more further away will send out it's echolocation at the same time as the closer bat it pretty much scrambles their senses until they fly away or crash!" Naruto shouted over Man-Bat's echolocation.

"Then it's a good thing we have a bat of our own!" Artemis still following the tracker ring and drone visual synced her next few turns perfectly all they while her eardrums were at the mercy of Man-Bat. "Naruto try to see if the drone has a recording function. If we copy Dr. Langstrom's we can broadcast his own soundwaves and use them to make him crash into one of the buildings!"

Even with the extremely uncomfortable noise Naruto managed to muster up a shocked comical facial expression. "But….but that sounds so mean!"

"NARUTO!"

"Ok, ok here goes nothing!" Naruto didn't start messing around with the drone's controller again, this time he looked towards the right side of the virtual screen to see a few icons highlighted indicating different functions. Raising a finger Naruto clicked on a circle Icon that had the words REC under it only to hear the care say.

" **Function unavailable**."

…Naruto pressed the button again and like before the Batmobile's voice over rang over Man-Bat's screams.

" **Function unavailable.** "

Naruto grunted as he began pressing the button over and over again.

" **Function unavailable. Function unavailable. Function unavailable. Function.. Function.. ….** " Naruto finally slowed down enough so as the last press was more of a norm causing the Batmobile to say one last. " **Function Unavailable**." Clear and undisrupted by itself.

"Naruto if that stupid button wasn't going to work the first time…" Artemis shouted out of both frustration and anger only for Naruto to scroll his finger all the way down to the corner of the screen and press a button in the shape of a megaphone.

"…What made you think it work the next….." Artemis' voiced dipped all the way down as she realized that the loud screeching musical stylings of Dr. Langstrom had disappeared completely.

"Well that didn't work." Naruto stated as he used his pinky finger to dig in his ears. "Good think there's a mute button."

Artemis mauled over but said nothing at Naruto previous actions as she grunted out. "Is there anything else that can interfere with a bat's sonar?"

"Hold on a second." Naruto reached over and started flipping through the pages of Allan Wayne's journal. "It says here that there is a species of moths that can jam a bat's sonar as a defense move."

"So what are you going to summon a swarm of moths like you did with that bull's head from that fight with Grundy?"

"No but when it comes to moth's I know a guy who works for a guy who's like way too into those little jacket eaters." Naruto reaching into his breast pocket and pulled out a black flip phone.

Using his thumb to open it up the mystic hit the speed dial and quickly held up the device to his ear. "Please be in Gotham; please be in Gotham oh hey Gary!" Naruto's voice picked up in a friendly manner but the look of anxiety was still on his face.

"Listen Gary I'm calling because…no I can't hang out right now…what no I'm working on a job right now…." Naruto paused for a second as he ran his hand down his face. "Gary I don't care if there's a Lord of the Ring's marathon on right now…because I think those movies are boring."

Artemis not able to hear the other end of the phone call was trying to understand what was going on right now as she looked at Naruto trying to drive and pay attention to the boy's call.

"It's like three hours long I don't know I guess in that genre I just like Willow better…no not the gay witch I'm talking about the movie Willow you know Warwick Davis…What yeah I know he played one of the space teddy bears from Star….ok I'm sorry ewok whatever I didn't call you to talk about movies I need a favor but it kind of depends if you guys are in Gotham."

* * *

In an unknown location in what looked like a circular royal throne room decorated in mauve and marigold a villain sat on his chair of power that was seated in the middle of the room and bellow his feet were a series of computers and work stations surrounds him that were being operated by a crew of loyal henchmen.

The henchmen all dressed in the same uniform of black body suits that covered everything but their faces under grey jerkins, shorts, gloves and boots with grey google masks in the shape of moth wings with blue tinted lenses all slumped in their chairs looking bored, were sleeping or just faking that they were working.

But one henchman who was more portly then the rest wasn't doing any of those things as his coworkers as he was busy at his workstation trying his best to hide the landline phone he was using.

"Ok hold on a second let me check." Covering the lower half of the phone the chubby henchman looked around before leaning over to his right whispering to his coworker who was holding his chin in an open palm in one hand and tapping his finger on his control panel away with the other.

"Pssst dude, dude!" Gary whispered trying to get his coworkers attention. "Are we back in Gotham City yet?"

Gary's coworker who was taller and skinner looked back at him with a raised brow and thanks to their expressive googles it showed on his masked face. "Why does your mom want you back in time for dinner?" he asked in a somewhat nasally voice but not in a sarcastic way but due to the fact that Gary's mom had used their work line to call him in the past.

"What no I'm talking to a friend of mine he wants to how long until we get back."

That statement alone peaked his coworker's interest. "What friend everyone you know is in here. Is it one of the guy's down in the engine room?"

"No he's not a henchman now are we done playing twenty questions or are you going to tell me, 34?"

"Ok, ok keep your tights on geez. Look we're still at the Legion sanctioned fueling station in Blüdhaven. Gotham's just across the bay alright." The henchman numbered as 34 stated as he pointed down at his monitor that showed the current energy levels of the flying fortress that they were in.

Gary uncovered the telephone as he spoke back to Naruto. "Yeah we're close by….no we weren't out arching the boss had to go to like secret circle of secrets meeting at the Legion of Doom headquarters…I don't know what it was about all the villains made us henchmen and technical support stay in the parking hanger so lame, so why are you calling again…"

But as Gary was chatting away the big chair that was fixated a few steps higher than the rest of the flight deck sinisterly spun around until the leader of this bunch of henchmen was looking right at Gary.

"Henchman 31!" a diabolical voice said out loud getting all the other henchmen to immediately to shape up as they all pretended to look busy now.

Gary swiveled his own chair around as he got up and saluted his boss with the corded telephone in his hand "Yes, my liege!" Gary shouted answering to his designated henchman number.

Rising from his throne wearing a black body suit with his muscular chest and shoulders covered in white fur material, razor sharp gauntlets with mounted wrist shooters, a back that held up a pair of expandable pale grey wings that had a hypnotic circular eye like design on them while styling a helmet cowl complete with an upgraded version of tinted googles and mechanized razor sharp teeth that moved to the contours of his facial expressions was the one the only Killer Moth.

"I still can't believe he got us to call him that." A random henchman said to another as he tried his best to whisper.

"Shhh It was the only way we could get him to buy a bumper pool table in the rec room." The other henchman whispered back.

Unfortunately the conversation was picked up by the mighty masked Lepidoptera as Killer Moth held up his wrist an aimed it at the first doubting henchman.

"Silence!" Killer Moth commanded as a dart fired out of his wrist and shot the henchman right in the forehead. "I won't have my authority questioned by the likes of any of you sorry excuses of slacked jawed worker drones!"

"You!" K.M. then pointed over to one of the henchman guarding the right side of his chair. "Take henchman…."

Killer Moth paused as a silky feminine voice spoke from the sideline said. "47"

"….Henchman 47 to the chamber of a thousand torments! There I want 47 to sufferer torments seven to Nine hundred and ninety nine, but make sure Henchman 40 administers torment seventy four he's the only one who knows how to work the power hose."

"Yes Killer Moth!" the loyal henchman saluted as he went over and picked up Henchman 47 by the shoulders and slowly dragged his dead weighted form out of the throne room.

As soon as the powered doors closed Killer Moth set his sight back on Gary. "Now Henchman 31 what were the rules again about making personal calls during work hours!"

"Wait a second before you kill me….or put my feet in a tank of mutated lobsters you should know that this is totally a business call." Gary said frantically as he waved his arms about.

Sitting back down on his throne Killer Moth squeezed the arm rest of his chair before he interlocked his hands and held them up, menacingly. "Oh then like then by all means 31 tell me who you have on the other end of that call so that they too can suffer my wrath if your following words displeases my peaked interest in any way."

Gary having been a seasoned henchman was under the impression that after all the closes times he was close to biting a bullet and coming unscratched from great falls that he really had no reactions to Killer Moth's threats as he went ahead and said. "Ok so get this a friend of mine just called me about a Batman sighting. Apparently the Dark Knight's out right now flying all over Gotham's business district testing out some sort of realistic looking bat flight suit."

"Really?" the did peak Killer Moth's interests as the gears in his head started to turn. "Yes, yes I see no dubitably our beloved Caped Crusader has chosen to embrace his animal persona a bit more strongly now. He's using some sort of guidance system based on a bat's sonar capability."

"Echo location." The same silky voice from before spoke up causing Killer Moth the focus his attention towards _her_.

Sitting at a desk more elegant and tastefully decorated then the henchmen a long ebony haired woman with ivory skin wearing a dark evening dress paused her work as her ruby eyes glazed deeply into Killer Moth's. "Sonar's essentially radar detection used in an underwater 360 degree environment bat's use echoes to locate their intended targets in front of them, hear the difference." The beautiful woman went back to work and chuckled to herself from her play on words.

"Lady Nocturna!" Killer Moth said dramatically as he rose from his seat once again. "If I told you once I've told you a thousand times never correct me in front of my minions!"

Nocturna didn't cower in fear like most would in her situation. Instead she just glared right back silently at Killer Moth.

"But back to the matter at hand if what this friend of yours says is true then Batman won't be expecting a surprise attack during his little field test."

Killer Moth then shook his closed hands back and forth in excitement like a school child about to visit his favorite pizza casino. "Oh man I could really get in some good arching out of tonight I need it after the day I've had."

To add to his stress the villain placed his hands on his lower sides and stretched out his back just before striking a dramatic pose and shouting at the top of his lungs. "Minions set a course for Gotham City at once!"

"Ahhh we're still refueling." The Henchman 34 said as he swiveled his chair around and raised his hand as if he were in high school. "Did you want to us to stop or…"

Killer Moth dropped his pose as he asked. "Well how much power do we have right now?"

Turning around to check his screen Henchman 34 answered. "Enough for us to get to Gotham, not enough to get back to Niagara Falls."

"What oh damn it!" Killer Moth stomped his foot as he cried out. "But I want to kick Batman's ass now this is totally the best time to kick Batman's ass!"

"Wait hold on a second boss!" Henchman 34 typed a few more commands as he double checked his work. "If we stop at the Legion of Doom station in New York after we arch Batman we should have enough power to make it back to our home doc."

Killer Moth scratched his metal chin for a second. "Wait to show some initiative you idiots could learn a lot from number 34." He said addressing the other henchman who all too busy paying attention to their boss to scowled at 34 who collapsed his shoulders in isolation.

Once again taking his seat Killer Moth turned to the lady in black beside him. "Lady Nocturna cut the fuel line and set a course to…..31 were did you're source say they saw Batman again?"

"…..The business district."

"Yes to the business district!" Killer Moth waited for a couple of seconds starting at the giant video monitor the size of a movie theater screen but saw that his ship wasn't moving at all. "Nocturna I gave you an order!"

Nocturnal refused to look at Killer Moth as she got up and threw her head up in anger. "Do it yourself Mr. Big Pants."

Killer Moth looked back at Nocturna in silent annoyance as he tapped his fingers along his chair as he turned his head away and folded his arms. "I'm sorry from before ok…..are you happy."

Nocturna used a finger to start up the launch sequence as the whole command deck started to shack and 34 could see on his panel that the power cord was severed. "There we're launching right now." Nocturnal said not bothering to turn around.

The command room was silent for a few more seconds until Henchman 31 who was looking back and forth between his boss and the boss's number two asked out loud. "Are you two fighting?"

Killer Moth and Nocturna faced each other before addressing 34 in unison. "Get back to work!"

* * *

Back down on the mean streets of Gotham Artemis and Naruto were still in the Batmobile still trailing Man Bat who was actually doing laps around all the tall skyscrapers.

"Ok Gary said Killer Moth's command ship should be here in about two minutes." Naruto stated as he closed his phone and placed it back in his pocket. "If he's super obsessed with moth's like any other themed villain then he probably has a gadget or something that can mimic the echo location jamming abilities of a tiger moth."

Artemis stayed silent during the call but finally spoke up as something had been bothering her for a while. "I still can't believe that your friends with a supervillains henchman." She said as she flexed her fingers on the steering wheel. "I mean I know you're not exactly a superhero but don't you find it weird to have any kind of….positive connection to a criminal?"

Naruto dipped his head down with his arms folded, the expression of his face held the steady gaze of a philosopher contemplating the duality of good and evil, right and wrong, Led Zeppelin and Taylor Swift. Only to snap his head right up look at Artemis and smile. "Not really. I mean Gary might be a bad guy but he's not a _bad guy._ If that makes any sense besides I'm mostly fighting ghosts, zombies, demons, or pirate zombie ghosts compared to that Killer Moth's just an annoying loud jackass in a stupid costume he's harmless."

"…..Didn't he once capture Robin and broadcasted the Boy Wonder slowly being encased to death from a pair of robotic silk spinning caterpillars?"

Naruto went silent for a second before saying back. "Yeah… well that's on Batman….its not my fault he's a bad parent besides it's not like that happened to us so…."

In that moment all the cars that were ahead of the stolen borrowed Batmobile stopped immediately as the sound of a loud engine humming, gust of wind blowing all the street litter and a long shadow casting over everything on the ground as a large vertical shaped object descended down from the sky and hovered between the skyscrapers stabilizing at a mid-level.

"What the hell is that?" Artemis asked in a monotone voice.

"Oh yeah I guess you've never seen Killer Moth's command ship. He usually rides the Mothmobile while he's arching but it looks like he's pulling out the big guns for tonight."

Artemis couldn't keep her eyes off the hovering ship with a duel glance "So in this case the big gun is a giant pine cone?"

"It's supposed to be a giant cocoon." Naruto said.

* * *

Back sky side the lower hanger of the cocoon opened up as Killer Moth stood at the edge, his wings spread open as he took a big whiff of the warm summer air.

"Smell that boys it smells like dead bat meat." Killer Moth let out an unholy laugh as his henchmen were busy rolling around dog sized metal cages that they lined up evenly in front of the opened hanger.

"Are my precious little angels in position?" Killer Moth asked as he addressed the henchman who was holding a controller connected to all the cages.

"Oh sure boss we're ready!" the henchman said with a cheery voice.

"What? I wasn't talking about you schmucks!" Killer Moth yelled making the henchman jump back.

Killer Moth then knelled down and hugged the side of one of the cages. "I was talking about the sweet little angels from daddy's lab yes I did." the creature inside the cage started to bash around the cramped space as a slew of acidic slobber splashed out of the cage causing the spit up to sizzle the second it touched a physical surface. "Oh looks like my boys are hungry tonight!"

"Well yeah we were stuck in a parking garage all day." The same henchman as before said. "It's not like there's a food court in there."

Killer Moth just looked back at the henchman as he just shot a dart right at the man's jugular, ignoring him when the underling foamed at the mouth and flopped on the ground.

Almost immediately another henchman grabbed the controller from his fallen coworker as Killer Moth got up and spotted a flying object flapping over yonder. "There you are my old foe."

As if on que Man-Bat let out another high pitched wale as it used its voice to guild itself in the night.

"Yes! Cry Havoc, and let slip the moths of war!"

On his leaders command the henchman pressed a button the opened the cages letting a swarm of giant sized mutated tiger moths the swoop into the city sky and make a bee line right towards Man-Bat.

"Yes, yes ha ha ha ha!"

"Hey wait a minute I thought it was hogs of war?"

Killer Moth stopped laughing as he looked at the one of the henchman who was moving the cages.

"Oh yeah you mean that old PlayStation game were you control and flop the pig or something."

"I thought it was a quote from that movie Animal Farm?"

"Oh yeah I think I saw that wasn't it a sequel to Animal House."

"Oh no you're both way off it's a quote from Babe 2: Pig in the City!"

Killer Moth looked at his henchmen and then at his wrist shooter and grunted out. "I knew I should have gotten the model with a bigger carousel."

* * *

"What the hell is this?!" Naruto watched via the batarang shaped drone as the mutated moths were heading for Dr. Langstrom. "I didn't want them to kill him."

Artemis tried to hold her tongue but it wasn't really her style. "I'd hate to say I told you so but this is what we get for relying on villains. They can't be trusted not a single one of them."

Naruto actually managed hold back a verbal comment as he grunted out and started to punch every button with gusto then before. "He's got to have it come on damn it!"

"What are you doing now?"

"Come Artemis think about it the car, the gadgets, the suits and the fact that he's a total man hussy behind the cape and the cowl and all Batman is a James Bond fan boy." Naruto ran his hands over the batmobile's parking break opening a secret compartment that held a shiny red button. "And what fan boy of 007 doesn't have an ejector seat!"

"What a second Naruto maybe you should thing about….." before Artemis could finish speaking the roof of the batmobile blew open and driver's seat started vibrate as the smell of burning rubber started coming out of it. But instead of getting angry or scared Artemis looked up at Naruto with a dry look. "…Just for the record If I survive this I'm seriously going to rethink this partnershippppppppppppp!"

The chair took off like a bottle rocket with Artemis strapped along with it. The Archer saw a control stick pop out of the seat which she grabbed and managed to control the direction the chair was flying in.

"That's good Artemis keep it steady!"

The Archer looked over her shoulder to see Naruto Uzumaki sticking to the back of the chair crouched down as his hair and necktie dangled from the acceleration. "What did you think I'd let you go into this Mexican standoff alone, Partner?"

Artemis just smiled somehow get adrenaline pumping through her blood kept her from getting mad in this situation as she pulled out the jet injector, twirling it in her hand like a revolver. "Alright let's see who wins Man-Bat, the swarm of giant moths, or us!"

"An eclipse!" Naruto unbuttoned the bottom of his dress shirt as he exposed his stomach as the spiral sun appeared around his belly button.

"What?"

"A group of moths is called an eclipse!"

 **AN: I posted a poll on my profile page check it out if you're also Marvel/Naruto fans. I'm in Texas right now and the whole central time's messing up my internal clock I miss my beloved California so much but my hotel room's got a kick as a/c unit so I'm conflicted.**


	9. Feathers, Fangs, and Fallen Freinds

**An: Not going to lie this is not my best work, but I did my best I just wish I could do more then that.**

* * *

With the eclipses of mutant moths to the left of them and a Man-Bat to the right Naruto and Artemis were stuck in the middle of the oncoming collision of a nocturnal air crash.

"Alright I'll take care of Dr. Langstrom." Artemis began to unbuckle her restraints on the ejector seat as she stared down the swooping scientist. "Can you handle those giant bugs yourself?"

"Well usually when I fight monster I tend to hold back in case I can turn them human again." Naruto ran some blood on his stomach getting the seal on his belly to poof out a series of shurikens that he managed to grip between his fingers without pricking himself. "But seeing as how these monsters were regular bugs to begin with…"

Naruto closed one eye as he ran his hand across his face. Looking through each shuriken hole as it passed by, peering at a different moth with each one until his arm as behind his shoulder. "…There's no reason to hold back!"

Throwing his arm forward the shurikens launched from his hand as they cut through the air until they each hit their intended targets. The moths saw the oncoming projectiles and tried to evade them but it proved useless as the shurikens changed course and struck each flying insect in the head, the wings, the thorax, and other bug parts.

Raising his right index and middle fingers to his face Naruto shouted. "Release!" causing each shurikens to explode killing and setting the targeted insect on fire as they fell to the earth likes gross falling stars.

"That was pretty cool."

Naruto looked back at Artemis who turned her head to face him while smirking. "So, shurikens?"

Naruto pulled another set of throwing stars and held them in his hand when suddenly a memory flashed before his eyes.

 **Gotham City Years Ago**

A young Naruto looked from a make shift dart board to a single shuriken in his hand as he prepared to throw it by using and overhand throw.

"Remember Naruto…" Looking straight up, the young Naruto saw a young woman with long red hair looking down at him as he focused on the smile on the woman's face as her long locks hid her eyes from view. "Studying magic and the wonders of this world are fine and good, but never forget…" the woman grasped the shuriken from Naruto's tiny hands and flunk the metal with little effort as without even looking it struck the middle of the board.

 **Present**

"…I'm a ninja at heart."

"What?" Artemis asked as she just watched Naruto space out for a few minutes.

"Huh? Oh sorry." Naruto rubbed the back of his head slightly embarrassed. "I was just remembering something my mom use to tell me."

"Your mom?"

Naruto looked ahead at another eclipse of moths heading right towards them. "Yeah she's not with us anymore."

Artemis didn't know why but the image of her own mother sitting at home reading a newspaper and drinking a cup of tea flashed in her head for a second. "I….I don't…I'm sorry."

Naruto did a double take. "Wait did you say something? It's kind of hard to hear up here."

"…Never mind it's nothing!" Artemis said as she jumped off the chair just as Dr. Langstrom was going to fly past them and managed to wrangle her arms around the giant bat's neck as she took a ride. "Now watch me ride this Bat out of Hell!"

Naruto indeed watched as he swirled around and took Artemis' vacant seat as he switched the joystick to direct the flying chair towards Killer Moth's cocoon. "At least she didn't say she was going into Bat Country."

Meanwhile Artemis held on for dear life as Man-Bat's tumble rolls was making it difficult to inject the mad crazed scientist let alone to keep herself from falling off.

"Dr. Langstrom if you're in there I need you to calm down!" Artemis yelled in a loud voice. "I'm trying to take you back to Gotham U to help you, Professor Milo…." But the second Artemis said that name it was enough for Man-Bat to screech even louder as he dipped down for a nose dive while spinning around and around.

"Alright that's it I'm done playing Nurse Betty it's time to go full on Dr. House!" Placing the injector in her empty left shoulder holster Artemis pulled out her phone and navigated it towards her musical library. "Let's see how sensitive those ears of yours really are!"

Placing the phone right next to one of Man-Bat's floppy ears Artemis gripped tighter with her other arm as she swiped play. " _Some folks are born made to wave the flag. Ooh, they're red, white and blue. And when the band plays Hail to the chief Ooh, they point the cannon at you, Lord. It ain't me, it ain't me, I ain't no senator's son, son. It ain't me, it ain't me; I ain't no fortunate one, no!_ "

The lyrics of CCR cranked up to max combined with Man-Bat's advanced hearing was enough for the creature to cry out in pain as it did everything to shake Artemis off even more so. Until it was left with the only option its scrambled mind was able to process as rational, it started to smash it's head into the side of a nearby building as it kept flying downward.

"Dr. Langstrom quit it!" Artemis cried out in concern. "Just land and I'll stop playing before Don't Look Now starts!"

Man-Bat didn't heed Artemis' pleas as he continued to smash its head until it finally struck a side of the building that was less sturdy then the rest of it as he and the archer riding on top of him tumbled into the building.

Artemis rolled a few times before finally stopping. Looking around the room proved to be difficult as the only source of light was coming from the hole in the wall. Getting to her feet Artemis could barely see Man-Bat standing on its legs petrified as it was mesmerized by the sight of a bust that was at even eye length with the hybrid.

Artemis looked down to see that her cellphone had skidded right under the statue, it's screen light blaring straight up was what had made the bust visible in the first place.

Not showing any sign of caution Artemis took this opportunity to charge at Man-Bat and inject him in the back as soon as she got close to the creature.

Raising its wings straight up in fright Man-Bat let out one final cry as he started to wobble back and forth just before he fell to his knees and passed out.

Grabbing her phone from the ground Artemis aimed the light at the walls looking for a light switch until she found one close by. Flicking the nob up made the room hum for a bit right as the florescent lights began to flicker before staying steadily lite.

Looking around the area Artemis began to look confused as what she had assumed to have been a regular office building had apparently held a room full of what could be described as dated hero/villain equipment making this some sort of old hideout/secret base.

A row of vintage barbells, a punching bag with big patches stitched around it, a dart board full of daggers, and umbrella holder containing a rapier, claymore, and katana situated next to a series of old T.V. monitors that were connected to a reel to reel computer network.

But finally a clue as to was sort of hidey hole she was in Artemis saw that what she believed to be a bust was actually a full sized mannequin wearing a retro tech steam punk looking brown leather suit with the head pieces and googles giving the wearer the look of some sort of bird.

It wasn't until Artemis turned around did she get the biggest clue of all in what she crashed into. There hanging on the wall was a picture portrait the size of a flat screen television that contained a group of well to do people wearing what kind of looked like white owl masks surrounding someone who was wearing the same suit that had scared Man-Bat into becoming a statue himself. On the corner of the portrait Artemis saw that date marked 1964 in bold white print.

"You've got to be kidding me!" Taking a step back Artemis recoiled a bit but not out of fear or dread but out of anger and annoyance. "The Court of Owls is real?!"

And once more the wavy lines of nostalgia ran through Artemis' head as a memory from her childhood began to break through.

 **Gotham City Years Ago**

At the outskirts of town in the forest that surrounded the east side of Gotham close to the property of the Wayne's Estate. A young Artemis sat in a tent with her older sister Jade. The older sibling had a camping flashlight pressed under her chin making her face more menacing then usual and once again telling her younger sister dark tales from the city they both called home.

"Ok now that we're outside the city I can tell you the legend of the secret society that's been controlling Gotham since before even Mom and Dad were born." Jade said as she used one had to stretch out her finger adding another ounce of fright to the already scary setting.

Artemis now without her teddy to use as a safety companion could only hold her knees to her chest as she tried to keep herself from shaking in terror. "Just stop it Jade, Mom already said that was just a story, it's not true!"

"Yeah well a few years ago we all thought Batman was a myth." Jade snapped back. "Now we can watch that tape of him punching Dad in the face over and over again whenever we get bored."

Clearing her throat a bit Jade continued as she crept closer towards Artemis being sure to shine the light around the tent so that the silhouette of the naked branches outside were shown in order to freak young Arty even more. "Beware The Court of Owls, that watches all the time…

The sound of a twig snapping momentarily made Artemis to look away only to turn her head back and see her sister right in her face giving off a big Cheshire cat like grin. "Ruling Gotham from a shadow perch, behind granite and lime…"

"Ahhh!" Artemis jumped back again as Jade while on her knees started to circle her little sister like a predator to its prey.

"They watch you at your hearth…"

Artemis tried to block it out by covering her ears. "I said stop it."

"They watch you in…Owe!" Jade stopped her menacing as she lifter her knee and pulled a pebble out of her way and flick it away before continuing. "…your bed…"

Her ears still picked that up as Artemis tried to cover them harder while shutting her eyes with more force. "It's not real." She whispered.

"Speak not a whispered word of them or…" Jade pulled away as her voice faded getting Artemis to open her eyes and look around the tent seeing that her sister was gone.

"J…jade?"

It was then the flaps of the tent ripped open as a large man wearing a porcelain Court mask entered the tent as he wielded a large chainsaw throttling it forward as he made the engine sing the song of horror incarnate.

"They'll send The Talon for your head!"

Artemis only sat still for just a second before she started to scream as loudly as she could and bolted up running in the opposite direction of the chainsaw wielding monster as she tore out of the tent and started to run into the woods.

Even with the adrenaline pumping though her veins she could hear the laughter of her sister and father as the two of them had set up the whole thing as a particle joke. The last thing Artemis remembered hearing before the memory got a little hazy was her father howling out. "Look at that wet spot, "Baby Girl wet her pants! Ha ha ha ha!"

 **Present**

It was the first and only time Jade and Crusher had worked and gotten along together that she could remember. Clutching her hands in anger Artemis ended up breaking the injector in her hand but seeing as how the sedative seemed to be working it rather seemed moot the be concerned about it.

"If it wasn't for that old English guy finding me a few hours later I would have frozen to death in those woods." Artemis said bitterly to herself as she walked over towards the mannequin and K.O'd the dummy making it fall over on its side.

Letting out a low growl as she started down at the Talon suit Artemis had her eyes locked on the outfit's googles. Kneeling down Artemis looked back at the knocked out Man-Bat as it just snored away, and then back at the googles.

"Why did you freeze when you saw this?" Artemis asked really to no one as she unhooked the googles from the leather helmet and held them in her hands. She had to admit in direct light the red lenses looked rather hypnotizing but still it didn't explain why the mutated creature looked frightened as he fell back before being knocked out.

Opening her smartphone again Artemis typed the owls+bats into a search engine and clicked on the first hit she got. It ended up being a video link which she viewed by turning her phone sideways.

 _"Hey there folks I'm Buddy Baker, the Animal Man here to give you all you're animal fun fact for the day…_ "

Artemis tapped her fingers alongside her phone as she waited for the Animal Man's theme song and opening to finish playing before she looked back on the screen.

" _Did you know while bats have quite the long list of natural predators none are more deadly than the owl? They can fly nearly twice as fast as our leather winged friends and can grow to be twice as big. While not possessing echolocation themselves owls have disproportionately large eyes in comparison to their skulls giving them the ability of binocular vision which allows them to aim both eyes simultaneously at the same visual target. And speaking of their eyes some experts say that there are some species of great horn owls whose eyes have an almost hypnotic appearance that can actually paralyze their prey when looking right at them_ …"

Artemis shut the video off and slipped her phone back in her pocket as she gently brushed her thumb around the edges of the goggle's lens making sure not to leave smudges on them. "It would have been a lot easier if we had something like this in the beginning." The archer mumbled to herself.

Getting back Artemis began making her way to the hole in the way that Man-Bat had made from the crash, hoping that she may be able to see how Naruto was doing in the aerial fight with the mutated moths.

"Damn it I need to get back up there." Looking back into the secret owl's nest Artemis' eyes began to land on all the retro tech with her attention focusing on a vest wing pack mounted on the wall, the still knocked down Talon uniform on the floor and to a peg board that had a series of different hand to hand weapons and tools hanging from its hooks.

"Ok." Artemis said to herself out loud as she nodded. "I can work with this…"

Back in the sky the ejector seat had long since run out of juice as it decorated a sidewalk with its broken pieces but it didn't deter Naruto in the slightest as he stood on top of a scroll that had a series of glowing golden chains coming out of the rolled up parchment with each end of the chains embedded into the foundation of a couple of sky rises across the street from one another.

Reaching over his stomach seal Naruto pulled out another set of shurikens with both hands this time waiting for another eclipse of mutated moths to make a pass at him.

While back in the flying cocoon Killer Moth angrily griped the sides of his binoculars as he focused his sights on Naruto. "Damn it this sucks! Batman's gone and that blond kid in the suit's killing my perfect little angels with those ninja throwing star things."

Lowering the binoculars K.M. angrily shoved them in the hands of a henchman who was standing next to him. "I've seen that little brat before what's he supposed to be anyway, some kind of demon lawyer?"

Another henchman who was swiping away on a tablet computer with Killer Moth's logo on the back stood at his boss' other side as he spoke without looking up from his screen. "According to the Legion of Doom's data base it says that his name's Naruto Uzumaki."

"Naruto Uzumaki…I don't get it what kind of code name is that?" Killer Moth asked. "Does it mean something bad ass in a different language?"

"What no he doesn't have an alias that's like his actual name."

"He's using his real name?" Killer Moth questioned rhetorically. "How very Lex Luthor of him."

"Well it also says that under this Uzumaki kid's alignment statues it's marked him as a protagonist with the sub section marked other." The henchman said back.

"Other what do you mean other?"

Killer Moth looked over the henchman's shoulder to see his flunky point at the screen.

"Well when they're marked under protagonist it usually says in the subsection if they're an adventurer, super scientist, a super hero, a vigilante, or a renegade but see on Uzumaki's page who ever last updated or created it has him marked as other you know like when you go to the DMV and they ask you if you're Pacific Asian or African French…"

"Yeah I get it." Killer Moth looked back across the sky at the glowing chains that where keeping his current arching up. "But I know he's some sort of magic like that guy with the Colombo coat what's his name Constantinople?" Killer Moth waited a second as another thought popped in his head. "Hey wait a second am I in that data base thing?"

The henchman opened a new page as he began searing for his boss on the site. "Nope sorry, sir."

"Hmmm did you look under K for Killer Moth." When he said his own name Killer Moth held up a menacing shaking fist while the speakers on his wrist mounted dart shooters played a three second chilling music clip.

"Still nothing."

"How about T for The Killer Moth!" he said once again with dramatic fist shaking action.

"Do people actually call you that?" the henchman asked only to get a reply in the shape of a dart to the chest as Killer Moth snatched the tablet from the henchman's hands not even reacting at all as the henchman passed out on the floor and a shift in turbulence slide his body down until the henchman plummeted to the ground below.

"Well if the site says he's a protagonist we might as well do some arching on a new arch. Nothing wrong with expanding the ol' resume into magical enemies.

Killer Moth pointed over to another henchman behind him and commanded. "You assemble a squad of our best aerial fighters and arm them with tranq rifles, those swanky new jet packs we got from Cobblepot, and some pieces of silverware made out of Nth metal that we stole from Aquaman's wedding a couple of years ago."

The henchman saluted as he ran back inside from the landing bay leaving Killer Moth with just one henchman who was now using the binoculars that were thrown at him.

Wanting to pass the time Killer Moth tried to use the tablet to look up some other random facts from the Legion of Doom site but was having a little bit difficulty. "Why the hell did Nocturna talk me into making my gloves all sharp and hard to swipe with...and why's it saying unauthorized offsite connection detected?"

After some maneuvering Killer Moth managed to pull up Lex Luther's profile page from the database. "Hey remember when I mentioned Mr. Cueball's before, it says here that he left the Legion since 06 why didn't anybody tell me this?"

"Ahh boss?" The Henchman tried to call K.M.'s attention but was met with deaf ears.

"No wonder Luthor hasn't accepted my team up requests."

"Boss?"

"I guess it makes sense I didn't see chrome dome's silhouette at my last tribunal hearing. You know there are some villains who can't tell his silhouette apart from that pointy eared hobbit Sivana's…"

"BOSS!" The nameless henchman shouted bravely at Killer Moth managing to pull his boss out of his rambling.

"This better be good Number 72!" Killer Moth yelled as he was in the middle of trying to take a self-portrait with the tablet's camera feature.

"I just though you should know that magical demon lawyer kid opened up another ninja scroll and three sharks made out of fire come out of it and they're heading right towards us."

"What let me see that?"

As the henchman had made the mistake of putting the binoculars neck strap on he began to chock as his boss yanked the binoculars out his hands while he tried desperately to get free.

And true to his words Killer Moth saw what looked like three hammer head sharks made of fire charging their way through the sky and heading right towards the opened bay doors.

"What the hell how's he even doing that?!" Killer Moth shrieked as he released the binoculars freeing his henchman's breathing.

"Cough, cough I know…are they just regular sharks that can fly in the air and spontaneously combusted or are they just magical balls of flames in the shape of sharks." Clearing his throat the henchman stood right-side up again. "It's a real chicken or the egg situation we got right now?!"

The henchman's voice pitched up as the flaming sharks invaded the cocoon's bay making Killer Moth and his henchmen hit the deck as the sharks' bodies dispersed sending jets of flames waving around the hanger.

"Oh so you think you're fire powers impressive you stupid little magic nerd?!"

The rest of Killer Moth's attack squadron assembled into the loading bay all saying "Hut hut hut." In metronome mantra as they lined up with each one holding their rifles over their shoulders as they puffed out their chests and waited for further orders.

"Minions!" Killer Moth shouted as he pointed out towards Naruto. "I want that punk demon lawyer's head delivered to me on a silver platter right now. Show him the might of my kind of fire power, show him with your lives if you have to!"

The henchmen all looked confused as they broke their uniformed assembling formation to look around the landing bay.

"Sir it appears that we do not have any silver platters in here, sir." One nasally sounding henchman said using his best soldier like tone as he was looking through the bag of loot from Aquaman's wedding reception.

"Yeah and we didn't bring any with use." Another squeegee voiced one said.

Killer Moth let out a very irritated grown as he ran his hand over his masked face. "I don't mean literally you idiots it's just an expression… just go out there and kick his ass!"

A collected "Ohhhhh" from all the men echoed in the room as from the left of the row each henchman began to run towards the opened landing bay doors to the outside and slapped the control switches on the straps of their packs lighting them up in the air as they flew out of the cocoon one by one.

All the way back in the observation commanding deck of the cocoon Henchman 31 and 34 were both watching 31's monitor as they saw their coworkers go off into battle.

"Oh man they're going to get their asses kicked." 34 stated as he looked from the monitor to his tubby friend. "Right?"

"I can't say for sure." 31 responded as he kept his eyes on the screen with his hand interlocked and resting next to his lower face. "Right now our fellow henchmen have the sky advantage while Naruto is stuck on that scroll, suspended like a hundred feet in the air he's essentially a sitting duck however…"

Back on the screen the two professional flunkies saw Naruto hold another scroll in his mouth that shot out two chains going in the opposite direction, same as the ones on Naruto's feet as a the teenager seemed to have summoned a golden transparent bubble shield around himself.

"…Naruto's a lot better at this then we are I mean I've seen the kid take out a pack of werewolves with a silver stapler, a freaking stapler, dude!"

34 looked back at the screen and saw the other henchman fly straight towards the shield at such speed that ramming into the defensive shield created a volley of electrical bolts that shorted out the jet packs, making them fall towards the ground like flies even though they're moths.

"Ok that's pretty cool." 34 stated as he pointed to the screen only to add something else as he noticed something quite surprising. "Ahh just so for the record those werewolves that Naruto kid fought off before did they have anti magic silverware that they stole from an Atlantean wedding reception?"

"What are you talking about?" 31 saw that some of the henchman did quick up turns at the last second in order to fly in circles above Naruto as they began throwing forks, spoons, and butter knives which caused Naruto's shield to shoot out in sparks different from the ones before from the metal rain.

31 gasped in consternation as he watched what was unfolding on his telescreen. "Oh my god…..how's he possibly going to get out of this situation?!"

34 couldn't help but fold his arms and shoot his tubby buddy a disappointed look under his mask. "So you're just going to sit there watching one of the few friends you have that's not an action figure hang in peril?"

31 held his steely gaze back up and said with strong conviction. "We cannot interfere for we are not just henchmen, protagonists, or even antagonists but watchers. The chosen few who are players entrusted to stay on the furthest corners of the board but still be in game in order to chronicle the ballads and epics presented before us."

It took 34 less than three seconds to call bullpucky on 31. "You're internet streaming serves are out aren't they and this is the closest form of entertainment you can get."

"Hey!" 31 yelled looking offended but immediately sunk back down in embarrassment. "I also can't find my old DVD collection."

"Some friend you are."

"Oh so you want to go out there and save him?"

34 threw his hands up in defensive as he began waving them. "Whoa, whoa, whoa he's you're friend I don't even know him."

31 said nothing as he went back to watching the events outside unfold. "It's not over yet…" the henchman's finger inched its way over to the keyboard and entered the short key for the computer to start recording the video feed. "…But just in case if something funny happens I'm sending this to Tom Bergeron and the folks over on ABC."

Hearing that caused 34 to moan out, as he ran his gloved hand over his masked face. "I told you to stop sending videos to those guys from the work terminals. The boss is going to find out you're the one who sent them that clip of him shooting himself in the thigh with his own sodium pentathol dart!"

31 paused for a second before blowing his coworker off with a pff. "No he won't and neither will Naruto."

* * *

Naruto gritted his teeth as he felt a shard from his own shield slice the side of his cheek as a spoon had been the cause of the piece of mystical glowing glass breaking odd and as painful as the cut was it hurt even more when he reached out and grabbed one of the forks raining down on him.

"Bamn if vere the eell did geese idots get mth hetal fgrom?! Naruto tried to yell out as his mouth was still full of mystic scroll. Throwing the fork away he watched it tumble down and shattering it's self out of his shield with just a simple tap.

Flexing his hand the singe marks left from the anti-magic element began to dissipate as steam rose out of Naruto's wounds making them slowly close back up.

It didn't look like the henchmen where going to just give up and leave as they had been dead set on making Naruto their target instead of going after Man-Bat.

Closing his eyes the mystic formulated a plan as he began to make a series of one handed seals trying to make each hand gesture as fast and accurate as he could. Just as Naruto finished his last set the spiral seal on his tummy began to glow as a pair of orange incest like wings tried to make their way out of Naruto by phasing out of his stomach like the ox head that he summoned against Grundy.

The two wings only managed to come out half way as they were both too big to go all the way out from the same opening. But Naruto didn't need them for their apparent use as the wings started to vibrate and emit a clout of golden sparking dust that enveloped the transparent cyclical shield.

The henchmen stopped throwing their Nth metal silverware as they were watching in curiosity as Naruto hopped off his scroll and dived right down, jettisoning out of the dome by going out of one of the holes made from the henchman's attacks.

Even with the building up force from plummeting Naruto managed to pull out a kunai throwing knife with a burning piece of paper attached by a sting to the end of the weapon, which he managed to hurl up into the shield.

Turning back around and holding his head Naruto smiled as he heard and felt an explosion erupt from above him not only taking out the henchman but also making his descent accelerate even greater due to the force.

Unfortunately in his infinite wisdom it took about a second for Naruto to realize something very important and flawed in his currently executed plan. "Oh crap I'm about to turn myself into street pizza!" He forgot about the landing.

Maybe it was the altitude or maybe it was the fear of falling down but whatever way he may have had to stop himself from falling in the moment was being clouded by his mind showing him an image of his broken body painting the sidewalk. But it didn't stop him from prying for some help.

"If you can hear me up there big guy I could really, really use your help I don't want to die this way!" Naruto cried out as he clasped his hands together. "Please Zeus! Odin! Raiden….and by Raiden I mean the one who was also the Highlander not the one who was Ajax from the Warriorsssssssssss!"

Luckily for Naruto his prays were answered but not by a thunder god but in the form of something even more powerful.

"Don't worry partner I got you!" A voice pierced the night air as Naruto felt himself being caught and carried out through the sky.

Opening his eyes Naruto saw that Artemis now sporting a pair of avian looking googles, bronze bird like wings attached to a harness, with a set of matching gauntlets with a crossbow mounted on one of them and a blade retracted in the other.

While holding the sorcerer around his waist with one arm Artemis had her other one stretched out using it to fly or technically gliding like Superman.

Sighing in relief Naruto looked up to the sky with a smile as he whispered. "Thank you Hera for sending one of your huntresses."

"What was that?!" Artemis asked.

"Oh I err said where'd you get the steampunk upgrade?" Naruto asked blushing lightly.

"Actually this stuff's from the sixties so it's not really steampunk but that's not important. I managed to knock out Dr. Langstrom and tie him up safety.

"Really where?"

"The same place I got this stuff. Now hold on tight I'm going to try and glide us back there!" shifting her back forward the wings expanded causing the two teens to propel backwards as well as upwards towards the archer's attended altitude target.

"Hold on you punk kids aren't going anywhere!" One of Killer Moth's henchmen yelled out as he flew beside them aiming a large tranquilizer rifle at the two.

Artemis replied back by aiming her free gauntlet at the henchman and let out a volley of spiked arrows that rapidly fired out of the weapon from the magazine mounted vertically on top of the wrist crossbow.

The henchman closed his eyes and clutched his arms around his head using his wings to shield him from the oncoming barrage.

Slowly opening his eyes when he heard the last bolt wiz right past him, the henchman unfurled his wing and gave himself a once over and not seeing or feeling any flesh wounds. He then smirked and pointed at Artemis in mockery. "Ha ha you missed me you dumb kid!"

Without even bothering to look at the man Artemis kept her head forward as she brought her arm towards her lips and blew at the end of the crossbow. "I don't miss."

Being taken back by the young woman's cool response the henchman looked around trying to see what she was aiming at but found his answer as he started to slowdown and begin to slowly decent downwards. Looking behind himself he saw that his jet pack had been the archer's attended target all along as it was riddled with bolts making it spark out. "Wow that is so badassssssssss!" the henchman gushed as his voice faded as the closer he got to the ground.

"I can't believe you actually had trouble with these losers."

Naruto grumbled as he tried not to look Artemis in the eye. "They were all chucking pieces of Nth metal at me that's like the mystical version of kryptonite to people like me !"

"Wait so this Nth metal stuff can hurt you?"

Looking over his shoulder to see that another set of Killer Moth's henchmen where closing in on them from behind, Naruto rummaged around his pockets and replied. "Not just hurt me that stuff can actually disrupt and destroy any kind of magic or spell but it's supposed to be really hard to come by. Word on the street is it can only be found in ancient artifacts from Egypt or Hawkman and Hawkwoman's home planet."

Naruto laughed out in victory as he found the thing he was looking for in the shape of a long roman candle that the mystic pulled from his front pocket. Holding it by the end of the candle with one hand and used his other to snap his finger a few times before Naruto managed light his thumb on fire.

Artemis watched in slight amusement as Naruto lite the Roman candle and aimed it over his back and right at the henchmen closing in.

"Please tell me that's some super charged hyper mystical item that you bought from a thousand year old wizard in a magical back ally?"

"No this is just regular Roman candle that I bought from Guadalajara the last time I was down there." Naruto explained as he also held another shuriken between his fingers, looked through it and then slide the metal spinner of death through the ignition fuse. "…But with a quick whammy modification."

The firework sparked up and shot out of the candle as ball of red light that spun around the sky right before it struck the henchman at the right end of the formation.

"Ah I'm on fire I'm on fire!" the henchman screamed out as he dropped his rifle in terror and tried to pat himself out.

"Quick stop, drop, and do a barrel roll!" the henchman next to the flaming one shouted.

The henchman took the advice to heart as he spun around and around only to end up knocking into his airborne neighbor creating a pendulum…actually it was more of a domino effect that eventually led towards a whole squad of henchman nose diving or spiraling down in flames.

Looking over their shoulders' Artemis and Naruto turned their attention back forward as they were now pursuit free.

"So where exactly did you get all this new gear again?" Naruto asked giving Artemis another once over.

The archer kept her sights on flying as she asked back without even looking the young mage. "Tell me something Naruto that monster book of yours does have anything written in it about owls?

* * *

" _I fear this might be my final entry. Ever since I found the dagger with the emblem of the owl I haven't been able to eat, sleep or have a moment's piece. I find it somewhat ironic that I'm being haunted by the one legend that I could always count one being a fable, that in this dark and twisted life I live that there was one story that would always remain as just an old myth_ …

Naruto paused as he looked away from Alan Wayne's journal and spun around in a wheeled chair looking at all of the owl themed gear that decorated the secret room that Artemis had led him back to. Along with a still passed out Dr. Langstrom.

Rolling the chair back around Naruto propped his feet back on the desk and continued from where he left off.

"… _My time on this earth is at an end that much is certain. With my advanced age aside all the scars I carried ether from my flesh or in my heart have begun to weigh me down. If it is indeed that I meet my end from the edge of a Talon then let my death open the way for others to carry one my work to stop the Court from whatever it is that they have planned for this city and its future_."

Naruto closed the journal and let out a deep breath as he rubbed his eyes from exhaustion. "About a week after he wrote this Allan Wayne's body was found in the sewer system stripped naked and covered in puncture wounds."

"Really?" Artemis asked as she leaned against the wall near the gaping hole with her arms folded. "Gezz after all the years spent saving people and hunting monsters to think that he'd end up like that."

"That's just part of the life we chose." Naruto said as he was curiously rifling through the desk drawer. "When our time comes there's a high chance we'll end up in the same spot as Allen Wayne. Dying scared alone in some hell hole wondering with our final breathes if we even managed to make a difference."

"That kind of takes all the romance out of our lives, doesn't it?" Artemis asked rhetorically as she looked down on the floor contemplating on what Naruto basically described as a worse case retirement plan. "But it's not like we were forced to be…what adventures?"

"I'd say we're something like that." Naruto said as he pulled something out of the drawer that was small enough to fit in the palm of his fist. "But to be safe I'd place myself in the other category."

That statement made Artemis snort a bit in amusement.

Opening his finger Naruto held up a yellow badge that had a stenciled picture of a black skull with two swords crossing over each other under it making it look kind of like a Jolly Roger, but what made the little piece of flair so uneasy was the brownish dried splash of some liquid or juice stained on the upper left corner.

Naruto was so mesmerized by the badge he nearly fumbled it out of his hands when he noticed some sort of music playing near by. "Is that Pruit Igoe and Prophecies?" he asked looking around the room as his head turned in every which way rapidly.

"Sorry that's me." Artemis pulled out her phone again and silenced it. "So you've seen Koyaanisqatsi too?

Naruto nodded as he watched Artemis' eyes grow wide in shock as she threw her head up in the air and let out a grown in annoyance obviously directed at who ever it was trying to reach the archer.

"Damn it it's my mom. She must have found out that I snuck out of the house." Artemis angrily typed some sort of response as she muttered through her teeth. "This is all I need right now."

"Oh." Naruto looked at the smiley faced button and placed it in his pocket. "So I guess after tonight you might not be able to go on any other outings with me for a while."

Artemis just raised a brow and smirked as he began to walk over towards Naruto. "Don't worry about my mom. It's not like she can actually stop me from going out again. But for now let's just try and wrap all this up before we get even more side tracked did Allan write anything else about the Court?"

Naruto flipped through the last remaining pages Wayne wrote down before leaving the rest of the journal blank which Naruto had taken advantage of and used the sections as an index. "

"There's not that much in here. He just goes on about the old nursery rhyme, some type of metal called electrum, and what looks like a picture of a throwing dagger."

Turning the book over Naruto showed Artemis the picture. Once she got a good look of it the archer walked over towards the dart board and pulled one of the projectile stuck into it. "So what do you thing this means for us?"

Closing the journal and pocketing it Naruto stood up and walked over towards Dr. Langstrom and sighed. "I think it means that we should focus on one thing at a time. Man-Bat, the Court of Owls and what ever this thing is!" Naruto raised the pirate flag button in his hand and pointed at it. "We're just kids lets do this in arcs and worry about this place when the Court sends a Talon after us when we're in the middle of our next quest!"

"Arcs?" Artemis asked dryly. "You don't have to sound so dramatic. By the looks of this place I'd say it's been abandoned for years. Even if the Court is still around I don't think they'd know we were the ones who crashed in one of their nests."

"Still I don't want to stay here longer then we have to." Naruto flipped the badge like a coin at caught and pocketed it.

"And I don't think that pin's important." Artemis stated as she watched Naruto leaning over towards Man-Bat. "For all you know that's just a memento a Talon took off the broken corpse of pour sap who just came back from an Adam and the Ants concert."

Rolling the giant mutated scientist over Naruto knelt down and held up Langstrom's head, trying his hardest not to throw up as creature's mouth opened and his tongue rolled off to the side as the stench of bat breath rose up smacking Naruto in the schnoz.

Watching Naruto trying not to gag, and turn Man-Bat's head back and forth causing the creature's long ears flop around towards making it hard for Artemis to keep a serious face on the current situation. But the archer found the strength to do so when she saw something interesting when Naruto was turning Man-Bat's head.

"Wait a second." Artemis knelt beside Naruto. "I can't belief I didn't notice this before."

"Notice what?" Naruto asked.

Artemis titled her head at Man-Bat and expanded her eyes a bit.

Naruto just scrunched his face, confused. "What."

Artemis sighed heavily. "Look at his neck, genius."

Naruto looked back down at Man-Bat squinting his eyes he tried to look at him at a different angel until his eyes lite in realization. "...Son of a bitch."

 **August 7, 22:38 EDT Gotham U**

Professor Milo let out a gasping breath as he pressed his back against the door of his laboratory's storage cabinet and lumped down on the floor.

Wiping the sweat from his brow the professor tried to get back on his feet but started to stumble until he caught himself by grabbing onto the beginning of the long table that held most of his chemical experiments.

Milo gritted his teeth as he tried to drag himself across the lab. He some how managed to make to the other end of the laboratory and reached his intended objective, a vile of a light blue luminous liquid. Taking the solution Milo only had just enough time to load it into another injector when the door to his lab swung open.

Turning around and trying to hid the injector behind his back Milo's face soften a bit when he saw Artemis and Naruto entering the room.

"Oh children you're back." Milo just greeted the teens with a wave from his free hand. "I take it you some how managed to capture and restrain Kirk?"

Naruto and Artemis shared a short before they looked back at Milo. "Yeah we have him waiting right out side." Naruto said using his thumb to point behind himself at the door.

Milo managed to cough out a laugh as a wicked smile spread across his face. "I imagine that it wasn't an easy task. I wish I could have been there to witness it. To see Kirk soaring in the sky at incredible speeds, out pacing the dexterity of a stealth aircraft by sheer force of will and natural ingenuity."

The professor quickly noticed that he had his fist out, shaking it with conviction during his little rhetoric. He quickly lowered it and tried to regain some composure. "I mean strictly in a academical query. But yes wonderful job now if you'll just follow me I'll show you were we can keep Kirk while I try to find a cure for his condition."

"A wait a second there, Professor." Artemis halted Milo by raising her open hand. "If you don't mind Naruto and I have a few questions that we'd like to ask you, about Dr. Langstom's problem."

"I thought we were going with curse." Naruto snapped quickly.

"Did he turn out to be a werebat?" Artemis asked sarcastically.

Naruto looked down and kicked the air lightly. "...no."

"Then we're sticking with problem."

Milo began to though his lab coat as he let out a nervous laugh. "Oh come now curse, problem which ever you may refer to it there will be time for more questions about Kirk's condition latter. For now I believe it's in everyone's best interest to contain him now."

"It'll be quick, I promise." Naruto responded with his arms folded and a slight glare in his eyes. "But you might want to sit down for this. You don't looks so good, Professor."

Milo gripped the side of the table he was leaning against tighter as he stuttered to say. "Just a little stomach I'll be fine standing. B...but I suppose there's a minute to spare go on what's one your minds?"

"The formula that you created with Dr. Langstrom you said that it was derived from the DNA of a vampire bat because you said only that subspecies had the necessary natural anticoagulant protein that could treat blood clots right? Artemis asked.

"Yes." Milo replied in an annoyed tone. "I thought I've already made that clear when the two of you were here before."

"Right, but it was just the vampire bats that you were focusing on though." Artemis said. "You didn't sample the genes of other species of bats into the formula?"

Milo's eye began to slowly twitch. "Of….of course not there wouldn't be any point. Only the genes of a vampire bat were necessary. I wanted to expand the research into other animals but Kirk was so dead set on finding a cure to his disease that he wouldn't let us explore into other areas until his health was improved."

"See that's what's actually very interesting because Artemis noticed something off about Dr. Langstrom when we captured him.

"We?" Artemis asked with levity. "What we I knocked out Dr. L with the tranq while you were running around in the sky playing grab ass with a bunch of morons dressed as moths."

Naruto crossed his arms and scoffed lightly. "Ok fine Artemis noticed something after she captured Dr. Langstrom."

"And exactly was this anomaly that Miss Artemis saw that's keeping me in such suspense." Milo asked sarcastically as he let out a low groan after he spoke.

"It was his neck." The archer said as she pulled out her phone and started swiped though it before pulling out a picture of Man-Bat with his head turned to the side showing a great big lump on the side of his neck.

"See why is it that Dr. Langstom's neck have a tumor still inside of it when even though the serum mutated him he should have at least been cured of his lymphoma?"

Milo stood silent for a second. Not saying a word until it was obvious something clicked in his head as he laughed out. "Well of course Kirk's condition might have physically still remained in tact but based on what I saw it looked like the mass began benign. We won't know for sure until I can biopsy it so if you would be so kind as to bring Kirk in here..."

"Oh we will." Artemis said slyly. "But see me and Naruto actually have our own theory on why Dr. Langstom still has lymphoma either it being still active or in resection."

"Really?" Milo asked looking rather condescending at the two. "Well isn't that delightful then tell me my young friends what is you're hypothesis on Kirk's current condition."

"We think that the serum Dr. Langstrom took was never meant to cure him by fusing his DNA with the venom of a vampire bat." Artemis replied coldly.

"But instead he took some sort of weaponized version of the formula that turned him into an animal hybrid commando using the DNA of a much more stronger bat species."

"What?" Milo tried to laugh out only to hiss lightly and turn his head, taking a deep breath before saying. "What on Earth made you come to that conclusion?"

"Well let's look at the facts." Artemis declared with the conviction of a prosecutor. "When we realized that the serum didn't even cure him we began to look for other abnormalities on Dr. L's bat side. The first thing we picked up was his ears.

"His ears?" Milo asked patronizingly.

"Yeah his ears if he really was part vampire bat then his ears should be short and sharp, not big and floppy like a microbat's."

"Is that all, his ears not looking like a real vampire bat's can easily be the result of being in a half changed form between his original human shaped ones."

"Oh isn't that something." Artemis said shrewdly.

"Yeah it is." Naruto agreed. "But see when Artemis brought up Dr. Langstom's ears it sort of jogged something in the back of my head. The bait I used to originally trap Man-Bat."

Artemis leaned to the side to give Naruto a quick sidebar. "Thank you for not saying master bait."

Naruto leaned over as well whispering back. "I already told you I didn't say that like it sounded." Getting back into his regular position he continued. "The thing is I filled it with fruits, grubs and bugs so why did it manage to attract Dr. Langstrom if he's only on the hunt for red hot blood."

"Well you see that's a rather interesting point." Milo said as it now was defiantly obvious that he was stalling. "You see what you have to understand is that well Kirk's body…his body is too big. YES THAT'S IT!"

Milo banged his free hand against the counter he was leaning on as he wagged his index finger up and down. "You see with his new metabolism there's no way a pure hematophagy diet would be enough to sustain him. He's still part human he'd need vitamins from the fruits and the rich protein from the insects to have enough calories to burn up using his wings to fly and such. So it's lucky you caught him now before his primal mind thought to turn his echolocation on humans for food."

Milo exposed the top row of his teeth as he began to bite his bottom lip with them. "See what the little joke I did there echolocation instead of sights, pretty cleaver."

"Yeah that's pretty funny." Artemis said maliciously. "But speaking of echolocation that brings us to the last very unusually thing about Dr. Langstom's transformation.

"Vampire bats only emit only low-energy sound pulses." Naruto sated. "But when we had a drown tail Man-Bat for a while and when he turned on the systems audio transmitter we got back screeching that was so powerful I'm pretty sure that I'm going to have to see my E.N.T doctor after this."

"OK enough of this." Milo wearily tried to stand up straight but found it better to slouch slightly. "As entertaining as your thinly veiled accusations are I'm afraid that there's nothing more then the result of your youthful imaginations. Neither of you two are academics let along a zoo or haematologist you don't have any proof that I what used the DNA of a more powerful bat to purposely turn my college and friend into a monster."

"I guess he has a point." Artemis said in a mock dejected voice. "We don't really have any proof to back up our little inquisition."

"Yeah and it's just like the professor says we aren't exactly experts in this sort of field of science..." Naruto paused as he sighed very heavily until the totally phony imaginary light bulb clicked in his head. "Oh wait a minute maybe our new friend can back us up!"

"New friend?" Milo asked as he began to sweat again. "You brought someone else with you?"

Naruto just smiled bearing his teeth as his head turned towards the door and called out to someone on the other side. "So do you think Mr. Bowlcut would purposely create a monster making formula?"

Milo's face paled to an almost transparent color as if he saw a ghost enter the laboratory. Closing the door behind him a young man who looked like he was in his mid twenties with slicked back brown hair and wearing a long sleeved grey shirt and blue pants stood between Naruto and Artemis as he had a deep scowl carved into his face.

"I don't know kid." The stranger said his eyes never leaving Milo's panicking ones. "Trying to create and army of animal hybrids sound right up in Achilles' alley he never could shut up on how great The Island of Doctor Moreau was."

"Wait are you talking about the book or the movie with Marlon Brando?" Naruto asked still in the mocking tone he had been using on Professor Milo.

"Read the room Naruto." Artemis stated in a flat voice as she grasped his shoulder with a tired expression on her face. "You can stop doing the bit already."

"Kirk just wait a minute!" Milo pleaded as Dr. Langstrom had closed the gap between them by gripping the older scientist by his lab coat trying to push him against the table as hard as he could. "You've just went through what I can assume to be a very traumatic experience, just stop and think about what you're doing!"

"What I'm doing?" Kirk sneered back as shook Milo violently. "What about what you did. You swore, you swore that that you would use the gene mapping sequence for the purpose of helping people not turning them into brainless monster!"

"No…Not brainless the serum you took was still a prototype. But ever since you've became a creature of the night I've perfected the kryptonite mutagen ratio so now, AGGAG!" Whatever Milo was going to say was cut off by Dr. Langstrom choking the life out of him.

"Do you think I care about you perfecting you're madness! Everyone in the scientific community told me not to work with you. Not to trust you, they warned me but I defended you I said you were just misunderstood like me but you ahrg.." Dr. Langstrom released his grip on Milo as the fury in his heart was weakening him everywhere else as he stumbled backwards and was caught by Artemis before he could fall over.

Still with the injector gun behind his back Milo used his one hand to massage his throat and cough out to clear his airways. "I never meant for you to get mixed up in my side projects. But at least humor me, Kirk.." Milo rasped out. "How exactly did you manage to turn yourself back to your original human state?"

"I have the spiky haired kid to thank for that." Dr. Langstrom replied as he gently brushed Artemis off to stand back on his own two legs. "He used his knowledge of the mystic arts to somehow whammy me back to normal."

"Mystic arts?" Milo pondered as he drew his attention at Naruto. "Like magic?"

"It's called the Evil Sealing Method." Naruto said matter of factly as he used his index finger to rub the bottom of his nose arrogantly. "I usually only use it to revert werewolves back into regular people but with a few alteration I was able to turn Dr. Langstrom back to normal."

But all Naruto's boasting did was cause Milo to burst in laughter. "Yes normal I'd imagine that would mean your health has been restored back into it's original state as well. While you took a different serum you still had a bat's immune system to at least fight back your illness into dormancy...but now."

Dr. Langstrom didn't find the humor in the theory. "Why, you at least owe me that much. Why did you pervert our research, was it for money or where you just trying to create your own twisted army of mutant soldiers to attack everyone who ever called you crazy."

"No not my army." Milo said darkly. "For what it's worth I really was trying help you find a cure for your lymphoma, but research coasts money. So when we started applying for grants I was approached by two different underworld organizations who weren't interested in finding the cure to cancer. But were more fascinated in the creation of their own army of Man-Bat warriors who can fly so covertly the couldn't be picked up by even the most advance detection systems and use their own organic source of radar to navigate through stealth missions with out the fear of being blinded by jamming signals or even EMPs."

"I don't know what's worse the fact that you purposely created a drug that turns people into monsters, or that you can still say you were doing it to help me." Dr. Langston started to fall forward but managed to catch himself by sticking his foot out and taking a knee to balance himself out.

Bending down to meet Dr. Langstrom at eye level Milo said rather sadly. "You're one of the few people I can even call friend, Kirk. If I'd have to sell my proverbial soul to two opposing demons to do so then so be it."

"It's not over yet, Achilles. You can stop this just destroy the samples and this can all be over." Dr. Langstrom pleaded.

"Kirk, Kirk, Kirk despite what you may think of me I'm not some sort of ridicules cartoon villain who waits to the last minute to initiate an agenda. There are not samples I synthesized and sent out an assortment of the formula three days ago."

Dr. Langstrom was shocked as he looked at Milo with guilt and fear in his eyes by that revelation. "What?"

"I was just trying to capture you now so you wouldn't get caught in the cross fire when the sky of Gotham began to darken by the beating wings of hordes of nocturnal furry that will shriek havoc and let slip the bats of war."

"I thought is was hogs of war." Naruto said to himself only to get a shush motion from Artemis.

"...You're insane."

"I feel like you already established that." Milo shrugged as he reached over, grabbed Dr. Langstrom's arm and injected his last trump card into his former partner.

The booster had enough kick to launch Dr. Langstrom off his feet and tumble backwards to be caught by Artemis.

"What the hell did you just do him?!" Artemis cried out as she watched Dr. Langstrom start to sweat and convulse uncomfortably in her arms.

"It's what I owe him." Milo stated as he griped the side of chest and began to grunt out in pain. "That was the original vampire bat serum, but truth be told I did slightly modified it to use on a new test subject who was foolish to intruded on me tonight."

"...Artemis..." The archer looked at scientist as he whispered her name.

"Don't worry Dr. Langstrom we'll get you to a hospital, make sure you get some real medical care in the mean time Naruto can..."

"NO! I don't need a hospital...I...I need..."

"What, what do you need?" Artemis asked as she turned her neck and used her head for Naruto to come over to help.

Dr. Langstom's world began to slow down as he started to hear a loud rhythmic beating coming out of the young woman's chest as his eyes fixated on her neck and for a split second as if it came to him like some sort of vision he could see her entire circulatory system pumping life throughout her whole body.

"I need...TO FEED!" In that moment Kirk Langstrom's brown hair started to turn darker until it was the shade of midnight, his skin tone feel all the way down to moonlight, and his once clam blue eyes became red with fury as his canine teeth grew at least twice in length.

Artemis turned her head back down just in time for Dr. Langstrom to take a bite right into her neck. The archer's turtle neck top managed to provide some protection from the first assault. But Dr. Langstrom's new found gluttony proved to be unrelenting as he pulled back ripping off enough cloth for Artemis' neck and shoulder to be exposed.

Naruto watched in horror as he tried to physically pull the deranged zoologist off his partner. But the doctor proved to be too strong as he back handed Naruto against the far back wall knocking him over and having to witness Dr. Langstrom attack Artemis again and again by rapidly biting the girl all over her left clavicle.

Unbeknownst to Dr. Langstrom however Artemis Crook wasn't the type of woman who took an attack with out countering it with one of her own.

"Get off of me!" She roared as her right arm started to make a mechanical clicking sound just as a hidden blade unsheathed from under her wrist which she used to stab and twist right into Dr. Langstrom's stomach.

Dr. Langstrom reeled his head back in pain, his mouth spilling some of Artemis' own blood as he howled just before Artemis planted her steel toed boot right into the older man's groin.

The pain form the double assault was not only enough for Dr. Langstrom to release Artemis but also send enough signals to his mind back in order for it to snap back to clarity. "What, what did I just errr." Dr. Langstrom kneeled over again as he gripped his stab wound and tried desperately to ignore the even greater pain coming from the lower part of his body.

Artemis herself managed to stand up for another ten seconds before falling over but be caught in time by Naruto as he gently set her down.

"N...Naruto?" Dr. Langstrom called out to the boy as he watched the young man take of his coat and used int to support his friend. "I'm sorry I didn't mean for that to happen I don't know what came over me."

"I think I do." A voice said behind Langstrom.

Milo's eyes began to change as they started to glow eerily gold and his face proceeded to break out in blue hair. "Magic or no you're body still must have burned almost all of your calories from transforming so rapidly. You just needed a little snack as a pick me up."

Slowly Milo's mouth stretched out and take a more canine snout shape as his teeth became sharper, his body bursted from his clothes, and his body sprouted in matching blue fur just like his new found facial hair until the once human Achilles Milo became a wolf like man.

"Although I must admit..." The now wolf Milo said as his voice was heavy and more grizzled. "I've just become quit famished myself. Kirk if you're done with the girl I'd like have oh what do the kids call it, you're sloppy seconds?"

Kirk tried to spit out all traces of Artemis' blood from his mouth as he glared daggers at Milo. "You're disgusting I'm going to make you pay, for all of this!"

"Don't falter yourself." Milo snarled as he began to stretch out his now hairy and muscular biceps. "The serum I injected is a powerful steroid I originally created for Anthony Romulus you know the University's star athlete that is until is check bounced. While I admit the cosmetic changes are rather facilitating my strength, speed and stamina are far greater then yours so I ask you for the first and final time, step aside."

Dr. Langstrom's response was a sucker punched towards Milo's face which actually connected sending the behemoth backwards and falling into a shelf full of other chemical components.

Using his giant clawed paw to rub his sore head Milo only had a second to counter another assault from Dr. Langstrom as he leaped out of the way,and grabbed the for a lack of a better word pseudo vampire by the back of his head and slammed the smaller man into the same shelf all the while breaking the valve off a gas slowly filling the lab with fumes which managed to light it's self into a blaze thanks to a random spark from the fight of man made monsters.

And that's how we come back full circle as Artemis laying on the ground looking up, bleeding to death as Naruto stood beside her trying to save her life while Dr. Langstrom and Professor Milo trying to subdue the other while leaving chaos in their path.

Naruto felt tears dripping off his eyelids every time he blinked not caring if it was from the fumes or Artemis' dire situation he did his best to wipe them off his eyes and tried to get his wits about him. Looking around the lab at what wasn't caught on fire the mystic in order to find something to use to save his friend.

" _Come on..._ " Focusing his gaze on anything remotely resembling a first aid kit Naruto once again prayed to every higher power he could think of in order to save Artemis. " _Please Hera, Ḫepat, Hekate I'll even pledge my soul towards to you freaky weirdo just some one anyone just give me a miracle already..._ "

The sound of a latch breaking and an unconscious body tumbling out of the lab's storage closet became the answer to Naruto's prayers. The newcomer showed signs that he was a live by trying to lift himself off the ground but groggily let out a moan and fell right back down slamming his face back onto the floor.

"F*#k you Hades!"

"Batman?!" Dr. Langstrom questioned out loud as he held Milo in a head lock. "Why is he here?"

Batman's surprise entrance was just enough of a distraction for Milo to break free of the hold and capture Dr. Langstrom in a lethal bear hug. "Your new found kinsmen had been apparently been keeping tabs on our little project for quite sometime." Milo explained as he griped Dr. Langstrom tighter getting the pale faced scientist to let out another cry of pain. "When he was following the children back to the University the dark knight's patience had dried up as he wanted to know who the two cryptic benefactors I've been corresponding with where. So naturally I managed to stall him long enough until pushed me in into the right shelf holding my little wolf steroid..."

Professor Milo lifted Dr. Langstrom into the air and threw him across the laboratory into the ensnaring inferno. But quickly using his new found agility Dr. Langstrom was able to somersault in the air and rebound off a near by wall, safely landing on the ground.

But that didn't seem to discourage Milo as he continued on with his bantering. "But even my unimpressive human form I was able to turn the tables on the Caped Crusader and knock him into the cupboard, it's rather funny actually he was the one I intend to use the modified vampire bat formula on until you showed up, Kirk."

Dr. Langstrom looked down at Batman and then towards the werewolf infarction of him showing indifference towards ether men. "Yeah it's a real punch to the gut, kind of like this." In an instant Dr. Langstrom used his speed again to sucker punch Milo in the solar plexus and resume their battle.

Batman was about get back up again but was taken by surprise when he felt some one grab him and flip his body over.

"N..Naruto?" The hero looked up to see the spiky haired mystic ninja rummage around his utility belt, flipping and unlocking every compartment while trying his best not to make direct eye contact with the masked man.

"Naruto." Batman said again in a more direct voice without question.

"You know you have a real sick sense of humor." Naruto said quietly to himself apparently as he found what he was looking for in the form of a metal box latched on the opposite side of Batman's belt that he was facing that had the symbol of the red cross on it.

"This is why pop culture always makes you an antagonist, Hades!" The boy screamed as he got up and ran back over towards Artemis sliding on his knees as he opened box and pulled out strips of gauze soaked in a substance that made the archer's skin crawl as Naruto began to peel off his blood drenched tie only to tighten in back on as soon as every laceration the young woman had was cover in a layer of gauze under it.

Wasting not a second latter Naruto picked up Artemis bridal style and started to carry her out of the lab only to stop when he heard a high pitch howl pierce his ears just as Man-Bat did before.

"You're not going anywhere!" Milo called out as Dr. Langstrom slumped down to the floor appearing as though the wolf was too much for the bat.

"I'm still hungry." Milo stated as he began menacingly approaching the boy. "If you leave the damsel behind, you just might live to see tomorrow other wise..." Milo stood right next to Naruto looking down at him as drool started to salivate from his mouth as a dribble the size of big rain droops stained themselves on Nartuto's shirt. "You'll find yourself as a hardy second course."

Naruto just narrowed his eyes as he looked at the stain, and then at the pseudo werewolf sighing. "I don't have time for this $h*!" Naruto then using one hand pulled out a silver staple gun from out of nowhere and aimed it at Milo's chest.

"Are you serious!" Milo snickered. "You think that's going to stop me!"

Naruto said nothing as he unloaded the utility tool into Milo ignoring the howls of laughter that came from the man beast as it looked like even from the staples piercing and hanging off his flesh wasn't enough for his body to even register it as pain.

"Is that it!" Milo asked as he was about to flick the staples off with his claws. "Was something magical suppose to happen?"

Putting the staple gun way and holding his index and middle finger parallel to his face Naruto countered with. "Yeah, when I say this release!"

Milo stopped laughing as he looked down and saw the staples begin to glow bright yellow as a series of archaic symbols forming in a unilateral pattern spread out of the pieces of metal intersecting and connecting all over the wolf man's fur burning their presences onto his coat until the symbol of a pentagram was formed.

The experience appeared to be too much for Milo as he feel to his knees and held out his arms, yelping in agony from the spell like a helpless puppy. "W..What are you doing to me!"

Naruto didn't respond to the question as he began to form one handed seals and shouted out the words. "Evil Sealing Method Five, Ring of Fire!"

Milo's new wolf form commenced to slowly shrink, as he was unrelenting with his howls of pain as his claws retreaded back into his hands his fur and facial features sunk back into his body until he finally turned back into his pitiful original self.

Shaking as he looked upon his human hands while glancing down his bare scrawny chest. "Ch..change me back!" crawling on his knees the expression on Milo's face wasn't furry or contentment, but of fear. "Please I beg of you I won't survive what comes to Gotham in the coming months, not like this!"

"Then it looks like you're stuck in the same boat as everyone else."

Milo turned around just in time for Dr. Langstrom to punch his former partner right in the face sending him spiraling on the floor with a dazed look on his face.

Langstrom's rage for Milo was quickly quenched as he turned his sights at Naruto and Artemis with regret and shame now in his eyes. "Naruto what I did I'm sorry you have to believe me I didn't mean..."

"It doesn't matter now!" Naruto shouted as he took a few steps back, distrust clear across his face. "What ever you have to say, say it latter. Right now I have to get Artemis to a doctor."

"But I am a doctor I can..."

"You want to help someone, help him!" Naruto used his head to motion over towards Batman who was using a counter to rise to his feet. "Thanks to you and Professor Bowl cut this whole buildings going to go down in flames." And with that said Naruto turned around and started to head out the door moving as fast as he could while cradling Artemis.

Even with the flames rising and growing it took a moment of brooding for Dr. Langstrom to snap to and shuffle over towards Batman and placing the masked man's arm over his shoulder.

But before Dr. Langstrom could escort Batman out of the burning lab the dark knight yanked on the hematologist getting his attention. "Wait, don't forget about Milo."

Looking past his shoulder and Batman Langstrom scoffed as he saw his former partner laying on the floor of the lab. "Let him burn with whatever's left of this nightmare. It'd be letting him off easy."

"We need him alive." Batman said firmly as his strength was slowly returning. "He has to face justice for what he's done not just to you but what he sold to you're anonymous grant donors he has answers we need."

Dr. Langstrom glanced back at Batman and then towards Milo again sighing out. "Fine."

* * *

Outside the campus the flames in Milo and Langstrom's lab began to become more and more visible as a human male was tossed out the window, letting out a cry of panic as he landed on a tree near by and tumbled trough all the branches until he fell on the ground with a big oof.

Milo looked up and the night sky letting out a small moan before the light of the flames behind him helped illuminate a tall long eared shadow approaching him from his front.

Scrambling on his feet Milo was immediately pinned to the tree's trunk by Batman as he pressed his open gloved palm with enough force that the sniveling mad scientist could feel the tree behind him start to splinter into his back.

"You've caused enough damage for more then one life time, Milo." Batman growled out as he showed that he was in no mood to play games. "Tell me who has you're mutagen formula before I decide to just let Dr. Langstrom have you all to himself."

"You better listen to him Achilles." Dr. Langstrom said as he stood behind Batman while he lifted his shirt to find the stab wound Artemis had given him had managed to close it's self up."I'm starting to feel a little peckish." To illustrate his point the doctor opened his mouth just enough to show his slightly elongated canines and let out a low pitched hiss.

"Ok, ok just keep Kirk away from me!" Milo pleaded as he tried to wiggle out of Batman's grip. "You saw what he did to that young girl, he's a monster now!"

"And just a few minutes ago you were planing to eat that same girl." Dr. Langstrom snapped back. "And I think we can all establish that the real monster here tonight was you, now tell Batman what he wants to know TODAY!" The flash of his now ruby red eyes was just the push Milo needed to start squealing on his backers.

"Alright, alright I'll tell you everything!" Milo shouted as he calmed himself a bit and swallowed hard. "One of the batches was sent to Nanda Parbat, to the League of Assassins!"

Batman processed that information for a moment knowing already that the first batch was in possible the worst hands it could have been in. "Then who has the second!"

Milo looked even more scared then before as he swallowed harder and physically displayed on his face that he was calming up for that question.

Unfortunately after everything that happened tonight Batman's patience was almost nonexistence as he grabbed Milo by the few scrapes of his shirt that still clanged to his body and reslamed him even harder into the tree. "Don't test me Milo!"

"Why do you think I transformed myself in the first place, for fun?" Milo asked mockingly. "As entertaining as it was to best you in combat Batman the reason I turned myself into a beast was for my protection that is until that yellow hared son of a bitc..."

What ever Milo was about to say was cut off when Batman noticed that he had his hand around the professor's throat.

Letting his grip go Milo fell a few feet down to the ground as he coughed out for air. "Whatever you plan to do to me is nothing compared to what _he_ will do if I betray him!"

"If you think your live is in danger..."

"My life you think if I went through all this trouble just because I thought my life was in danger I'm afraid you truly don't know who I sold that other mutagen to." The look on Milo's was behold anything Batman had seen in a long while. "I told you both before that I didn't sell my soul to a super villain or some imprudently criminal gentlemen, I sold it to the devil's left hand himself!"

"I want a name now Milo!" Batman seemed on edge more then usual it was hard to say if what was making him angrier the fact that Milo wasn't knuckling under his threats, or that said scientist was able to suck punch him thanks to the delayed effects of a wolf steroid, or that the police scanner in his cowl just picked up that the new prototype Batmobile was just spotted downtown in the middle of the road missing the driver's seat.

"There's nothing you can do that will make me tell you...wait what are you doing?" Milo looked over Batman's shoulder to see Dr. Langstrom pulling out a vile of a greenish blackish solution, pop the top of the glass container and down the serum as he pushed pasted Batman and bit down into Milo's forearm.

"Ahhh!" Milo cried out in pain as Dr. Langstrom let go of his bite and made Milo fall to his knees again as he was gripping his arm as he watched in horror as the veins in his arm started to turn black.

"What did you just do, Langstrom?" Batman asked as he bent down to observe Milo's injury.

Spitting the left over serum out of mouth Dr. Langstrom explained. "Something the last professor who worked out of our lab left behind I believe you're familiar with Dr. Jonathan Crane's work?"

"Scarecrow." Batman saw the telltale of the master of fear's work make their way into Milo's system as he began to sweat and shake uncontrollably as well as let out a terror fulled shriek every other second. "Crane's fear toxin is always dispersed in aerosol form I've never seen a liquid based version."

"For good reason. I belief this is a prototype from what I've gathered this version's twice as powerful but only lasts for about ten minutes before it'll burn out of it's subject's system."

Milo was now hyperventilating as he babbled incoherently. Batman narrowed his eyes under his cowl as it seemed Langstrom had some secrets of his own with keeping something like this hidden away.

Langstrom's eyes did a double take as he saw the look Batman was giving him as he sighed out. "I only saved that fear serum from the fire to reverse engineer an anti-depressant from it, despite my Gothic enhancement i wasn't exactly a happy person to begin with."

Banter aside it was time to get to the end of this case once and for all. "I want a name, Milo." Batman demanded once again interrogating the mad scientist. "Besides the League of Assassins who else has the Man-Bat formula."

Grabbing the mad man by the neck and lifting him up in the air Batman shouted again. "I'm getting tired of this tell me who it is right now!"

Through Milo's eyes the world swirled around into a dark nightmare as Batman's form began to shift and change distorting into something or someone who he feared even more.

"Who is it?!"

The look in Milo's eyes showed the bursting limit for panic as he actually began to weep. "That...that chin you have the same chin..."

"I told you no more games!"

"...Gloved ones..."

"What did you say?"

Looking down Milo saw not Batman but the one man he feared more then anyone else holding him up by the scruff. A man dressed in a formal dark suit, black cape and matching pointy black face mask glaring daggers at him. "That's who's hands the other Man-Bat serum. I gave to the Black Glove..."

And with that said Milo's eyes rolled back and his head slumped forward as he passed out. Gently tossing scientist down Batman stood silent as he digested on what he just learned.

"Black Glove." Dr. Langstrom said out loud. "I don't think I've ever read or heard about a criminal named that in the news before."

"For good reason, most of the world's intelligence agencies don't believe he actually exist. Nothing more then ghost stories told to frighten rookie law enforcement officers. But for the ones that do it's said that the Black Glove is a criminal organization led by a man with the same title operating at the highest order with it's top members composed of dictators, corrupt generals and amoral millionaires."

"So what do you believe?" Langstrom asked as he silently monitored Batman's vials with his pseudo vampiric senses.

"There's little evidence suggesting that they truly exist. But I believe that for a time their leader operated out of Gotham a few decades ago before relocating to parts unknown other then that I don't know much else, who there members are or even the real name of their leader."

"To be honest I don't really care how dangerous these Black Glove people are or even that other group Milo mentioned, the League of Assassins who I'm guess is a league composed of assassins..."

Batman looked over his shoulder and rose a hidden brow from his cowl not knowing if the doctor was cracking some kind of joke.

"...but regardless I'm not letting my work from the past five years become some sort of weapon for two groups of mad men, so what ever I can do to help with this you have my one hundred percent corporation."

Batman acknowledged Dr. Langstrom's declaration with a simple response. "No."

"...excuse me?"

"I'm sorry Langstrom but given your current condition you're too dangerous to be left to your own devises let alone assisting in a laboratory with volatile chemicals if you frenzy yourself into another episode."

"But I'm coherent. As long as I keep my temper in check and digest a decent amount of blood I should be docile, it doesn't even have to be real I can easily synthesis artificial plasma to feed myself." Dr. Langstrom stated firmly.

"I can't take that risk even with all that you still attacked a minor tonight. If that girl manages to pull though we don't know if your condition can or has been viral and spread to her. I'd be in everyone's best interest if you're placed in quarantine for the time being."

Reaching over to his side Batman pulled out a pair of bat shaped hand cuffs and unshackled them. "I'm sorry Dr. Langstrom put this would make your situation a lot easier if you just..." But as Batman looked back up he saw that he was talking to the night air as there was no sign of Dr. Kirk Langstrom anywhere within viable eyesight or the shadows which Batman knew very well.

"You've gotta be kidding me."

* * *

 **August 8, 12:05 CST** **Nanda Parbat  
**

In a secluded temple built into the side of a mountain a group masked warriors dressed in garb that would best be described as modern ninjas with black hoods over their heads all drew out a specific weapon that best suited them as they had a young woman with short black hair surrounded in a circle.

The woman had her eyes covered by a long white strip of cloth tied around her head. Unlike the ninjas the only articular of clothing woman wore was a white loincloth around her waist and white chest wrappings covering her perky bust.

The woman too held a weapon in her hand but while her opponents had lethal ones while she wielded was a bamboo staff while twirling it in her hands as she listened and waited.

Her discipline of waiting was rewarded when one of the ninja's made their opening move by drawing out a katana blade that came down at her with a downward strike.

The woman's ears picked up the ninja's foot steps as she slide to her left, spun around and counter striked her opponent by knocking the weapon out of her opponents hands and hitting them in the leg.

Another ninja took the opportunity to attack next as they pulled out a pair of militarized hatches striking while the woman's back was facing them.

The woman spun around and bent her knee to crouch down and hold her staff horizontally with her palms open as if she was offering the weapon until her opponent was close enough that she raised her hands higher and used her staff to intercept the hatches right were the blades met the handle. with one strong spin she sent the axes flying away while delivering a strong kick to her opponents gut.

And that's when the remaining ninjas attacked at once, not that it made a difference. One after the other they all fell to the blinded woman.

From one of the sides of the temple's training room a bald tall and muscular black man wearing an orange shirt with black stripes under a brown leather jacket also styling a large tiger belt buckle walked into the room.

The man took off his blue tinted shades as he approached into the training area and ducked as a ninja flew past him and landed on a near by column. "You know back in the day when your old man would do this little training exercise he wouldn't go so easy on the new meat."

The woman who had the last ninja under her foot delivered one last strike knocking the opponent out cold. "Well luckily for our new brothers and sister's I believe in displaying some restraint when demonstrating to them why I am the head of the assassins."

"Restraint?" One of the ninja's said from the floor using a pillar to sit themselves up to as the warrior took of their mask showing that in was a beatifically young girl with flowing dark hair underneath. "I think you just broke my arm."

"And if you were here during the Demon's Head's reign you would have lost that arm or rather your life given that performance ." The woman snapped back angrily. "All of you gather the one's who are still unconscious and take them to medical hall for treatment, class dismissed."

the young dark haired ninja waited until the last of her comrades escorted each other out of the training hall before she bowed to her teacher. "Thank you for your wisdom and mercy, Mistress Nyssa true heir to the Demon."

That declaration created a smile on Nyssa's wise beyond years yet still young face. "It wasn't mercy my dear, I just believe defeat to be a better teacher then death."

As soon as the young ninja left the bald man with the tiger belt buckle laughed lightly as he looked down towards Nyssa. "You really are getting a bit softer in your old age."

Nyssa didn't say any thing as she placed her bamboo staff under her foot while at the same time pulled at it until the wood snapped from the pressure. "I take it you're interruption carry's some importance, Ben."

Ben Turner or as he was known in the underworld the Bronze Tiger reached into his jacket's pocket and pulled out a report and presented it to his boss. "We just received Professor Milo's care package just a little while ago and as you requested we ran tests to see if he sent us the genuine article."

"And what did we find out?" Nyssa asked as she looked at the findings.

"It checks out we can synthesis enough for the whole strike force within the end of the month."

"I see very good." Nyssa said as she passed the papers back towards Ben and walked over towards a decorated Japanese style cabinet and opened it. "I want my army of man bat hybrid warriors to be ready as quickly as possible for our attack on Gotham to come to flourishion. If anything it will present the perfect opportunity to show the world that our assassins are even greater then Ra's al Ghul's shadows."

"Oh and how are you planing to do that?" Ben asked already feeling he knew the answer.

"Simple we're going to do the one thing both my father's will and sister's heart have failed to do in the past." Nyssa reached into the cabinet pulling out a batarang. "We are going to destroy the Detective's greatest legacy once and for all."

* * *

 **August 7, 21:05 MST Cabo San Lucas**

On the top of a hill side overlooking the Gulf of California sat a mansion. It stood like a castle, a fortress, and to the poor souls being broken and unmade inside it was worse then a prison it was hell on Earth.

But in the halls of the mansion echoed the sounds of crackling whip striking down on living flesh. But instead of the sounds of pain and torment moan of bliss and euphoria as they led to a room decorated like a chapel.

All over the floor young woman of different styles, races, and sizes laid there wearing only lingerie and decorative masquerade masks watching as the sole man in the room kneeled at an alter while flogging his bare back with a cat o nine tails as the only articles of clothes he wore were a pair of dark slacks, a masquerade mask of his own decorated to make him look more devilish and a pair of simple black gloves that held his grip on his tool with greater restraint.

The blood, the peeled flesh and the sting of open wounds seemed to excites him even more then the last physical attack of pleasure he preformed on the woman as he grunted and let out another another spasm of satisfaction.

"I see you have taken in your after dinner delight, Monsieur." A short stout man said with a french assent as he hobbled with the aid of a walking stick into the room. Wearing a green clock to hid his enormous hunchback the little man did his best to tip toed around the woman while approaching the Black Glove, occasionally using his stick to push past some of the woman as if they were nothing more to him then street filth.

"These little morsels were nothing more than an aid to fluff up my excitement." The man said as he got to his feet and stretched out his back paying no mind to the blood gushing from his laceration. "This is what truly gets me off, M'sieur Le Bossu." He said cracking his whip and then holding it out with both hands to get a better whiff of the leather socked in his own blood.

"Yes, well pardon my intrusion but I just came to inform you that Milo's little gift has finally arrived." Le Bossu said as he reached over and handed the Black Glove a fresh white dress shirt.

The Black Glove took the garment and placed it on as the blood coming out of his deepest wounds began to seep though the fabric staining it in the shape of the cuts." It's hardly a little gift, no with the hybrid serum in my grasp I'll finally be able to pay a proper tribute to the great daemon of my ancestors the Miagani Tribe.

"So what shall be our next move?" Frenchman asked.

The flayed masked man poured himself a glass of red wine from a near by table and swashed the drink lightly as he answered back. "Why it's simple my little adorable deviant I've been enjoying my little vacation for far to long. Our underworld connections are complete, we're flush with drug money and now with the serum in our hands I believe it's time we return back home."

"...You do now that my home is in Bordeaux." Le Bossu said evenly.

The Black Glove let out another laugh. "Then I'll be sure to show you around and a good time once we arrive. Oh how I miss that crime ridden cesspool it's as if someone took my dreams and made then into metal and stone."

"Very good well then I amuse you'll want me to assemble the members of our little social group and have them ready for our journey North." Le Bossu asked.

The masked man nodded. "Yes but first I'd like to show you a little pet project I've been tinkering with in my spare time." He reached over and picked up a small dinner bell which he gave a few rings. From the right side of the chapel a door opened as another man entered the room this one dressed more flamboyant then his master as he was dressed as pink matador with a matching the domino mask over his cold and unfeeling eyes.

The matador walked over towards his master remaining silent only greeting him with a wicked smile that showed off his sharp filed teeth. "I believe you've heard tale of the great crime fighter of Central America, Eduardo Flamingo."

If he was capable to do so Le Bossu would raise an eyebrow right now. "I believe we have met once or twice correct me if I'm wrong but is this not the man responsible for interfering with your drug trade business under the moniker El Penitente?"

The masked man placed a hand on the matador's shoulder and shook it vigorously. "Once a upon a time perhaps but ever since we met face to face I have been able to rehabilitate Flamingo in order to get those pesky thoughts of heroism out of his psyche for good. All it took was some good old fashioned therapy, mind altering drugs, and me forcing him to eat and then kill every member of his entire family to get there but I can now say with confidence that he is now a more functional member of society!"

Flamingo nodded to his master's deceleration as he threw his head back and laughed out manically with glee.

"It's truly remarkable you managed to take a former adversary and turn him into one of our greatest enforcers."

"Oh yes but he's just the beginning." The masked man said. "I have great plans for that vexing little relative of mine who thinks he's earned the right to use my name along with some other miss guided Gothamites I've had my eyes on. But before anything, Flamingo."

The pink garbed man turned and faced his master with a nod of recognition.

"I heard about your success in Buenos Aires and how you took out that pest El Gaucho." Black Glove stated with great pride.

Flamingo smiled as he opened his mouth and ran his tongue over his sharp teeth.

"Yes and as a reward for a job well done I'd like to reward by letting you have the honer to dine on my personal selection of concubines." The masked man said raising his hand over towards the woman still stuck to the floor as they had tried their best to move since the last few minutes but found their bodies to be unresponsive.

"I'm afraid ladies that the sacramental wine I offered all of you contained trace amounts of my favorite neurotoxin it paralyzes the body but heightens the sensations of touch both for pleasure and pain." Black Glove explained gleefully as he handed his servant his cat o nine tails.

Hearing all that and being handed such a fine weapon made Flammingo smile even wider as he reached into his coat and pulled out a dinning napkin that he placed under his collar as unfurled the whip and gave it a few wacks as each snap put more and more fear in the ladies eyes as he began to slowly approach the woman.

"Is he really going to feast on all of them?" Le Bossu asked not in disgust but out of basic curiosity at the volume of meat.

"I'm afraid he's like a child now all he eats is the skin." The Black Glove laughed out as he existed out of the chapel from were Flamingo entered.

As the masked flayed man walked past Le Bossu the little hunchback's eyes were drawn towards the red stains on the back of his master's shirt from his deepest wounds, which was shaped in a stylistic W.

* * *

 ** **August 7, 22:05 EDT Gotham  
****

On a closed circuit television screen which was the only source of light in a dark enclosed unknown location was an image of Artemis and Naruto leaning over an unconscious Man-Bat in the secret Talon's nest.

Watching the screen in a leather antique armchair a middle aged woman with greying blond hair wearing a very expensive evening dress and jewelry had her legs crossed and her face hidden with a white porcelain owl mask while holding a martini glass.

At her side was a middle aged man dressed in a sharp suit, he too wearing the same porcelain mask holding a remote control towards the screen.

"Pause!" The woman commanded as the screen was stopped on an image of Naruto and Artemis lifting a now human Kirk Langstrom to his feet.

"Now rewind the last few seconds."

The man did as the woman ordered as he pressed the button that made the video go backwards with Langstrom going back on the ground and slowly turning back into Man-Bat.

"Interesting, very interesting Mr. Ninox?"

The man called Ninox reached into his breast pocket pulled out a smartphone and with a few swipes he opened a file saved on it as he read it's context out loud. "The creature's name is Dr. Kirk Langstrom a teacher and researcher of zoology at Gotham University. I'll see that our people on the university's board of advisers obtain his current research."

"See that you do." The older woman said as she leaned back in her chair and tapped the side of her mask with her index finger. "And what of the children, more importantly the young lady who managed to first enter that old abandoned nest?"

This time Mr. Ninox handed her over a manila folder that had the archer's name on it. "Her name is Artemis Crook the daughter of..."

"Laurence Crook." The woman said cutting Mr. Ninox off. " Yes I remember now she's his youngest, the one he promised to us in order to pay penance for his part in the Knightfall Calamity."

With a twirl of her finger the woman ordered Ninox to active the screen's picture and picture feature witched showed a smaller image of Artemis fighting off Killer Moth's henchman while using the outmoded Talon equipment from the nest.

"Magnificent it looks like that giant oaf actually manged to do a half decent job in training the girl. I want her brought into the fold and presented in front of the parliament for evaluation." The woman ordered firmly. "She'll make a fine replacement for the last grey son who fell through our grasp."

"That might be a problem the boy in the video that she's keeping company with." Mr. Ninox used the remote to zoom in on said boy but regretted it when all he did was pixalate the image. "Oh sorry just give me a second." he tried to go back but ended up taking a screen shot of the image instead. "Wait let me just back up here."

"Ninox some time today, please." The woman commanded some how keeping her anger from spilling her drink.

"Forgive my incompetence, ma'am." Ninox pleaded as he forgone the remote and just linked his phone to the video screen and replaced the nest's security footage with a web link to a personal profile. "As I was trying to say before by using that backdoor entrance from Killer Moth's server assess to the Legion of Doom database I was able to identify him as Naruto Uzumaki."

The woman in the arm chair sat silently while her whole body began to vibrate in anger as her grip on her glass shattered into shards while the drink spilled everywhere and blood dripped from her fingers. "Did you just say...UZUMAKI!"

Ninox ran over towards the woman picking up the glass pieces while the woman placed her hands on the side of her mask gripping it in order to control her anger.

"Ninox that Crook girl I want her found and brought to me, I want whatever it was that transformed Langstrom into a monster brought to me, and finally I want that Uzumaki brat brought to me beaten with in a inch to his life, NOW!" The woman lost her grasp on the side of her mask and trailed her bloody fingers across it giving her mask a slash like mark on it.

"Yes it shall it be done." Ninox said with a bow as he looked over to the corner of the room. "Won't it, Talon."

And from the shadows a man dressed in the same Talon uniform like the one from the nest but with a more modern update. "Two brats and a mutated academic, yeah I think I can this." And with a simple wrist throw three daggers flew across the room and struck the television screen.

"How many times do I have to tell you not to do that?!" The woman yelled out making it even more difficult for Ninox to bandage her hand wound.

 **AN: Just to fill you in, in this fic the League of Assassins was once a part of the League of Shadows founded by Ra's back in the day. But when his oldest daughter Nyssa felt that dear old dad was losing sight of their original goal and especially when he joined a certain club felt he was no longer fit to be a true assassin she took a portion of shadows loyal to her and hired outside warriors who she felt could be beneficial for her killer for higher new business plan and founded her own group using Ra's original base of operations as her own.**

 **With the scene with the Black Glove I want to apologize to those who don't have a strong constitution. I tried to be as least descriptive as I could with the gore which I'll try to do with any other scenes associated with him and his associates.**

 **The main purpose of bringing him in this story was to have a character who was as evil in it's purest form as a posed to goofy evil Killer Moth and all other future members of the Legion of Doom I still wanna keep this fic T and not M.**

 **Also I'm really sorry for the super late update I have no good excuse. I had plenty of free time and no writer's block so all I can say is I'm sorry I was lazy and lastly sorry to say this but despite the set up you're at least two arcs away from seeing the Assassins, Black Glove or even Owls so just hang tight the next arc is just one chapter while the second will be kind of mid sized until we get to the War of the Three Revenants.**

 **But on the plus side the next small arc Naruto finally meets the Team and we find out the consequences of Artemis not joining...kind of well until next time oh and Happy New Year which was a few days ago. Again sorry for spelling and grammar.  
**


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